photo by: Andrew Grimm

The Steubenville Big Red boys basketball team, pictured with their District Championship trophy and medals after defeating Chillicothe on Wednesday inside Ohio University’s Convocation Center.

ATHENS — Sometimes it takes a team a little bit to adjust to playing in an atmosphere like Ohio University’s Convocation Center.

Not Big Red.

Playing in the Division III East/Southeast District Championship in the home of the Bobcats for a second-straight season Wednesday night, Steubenville started like a team that had indeed been there before and did not look back. They never trailed in a 64-47 victory over Chillicothe in the first meeting between the programs since 1987.

Big Red scored the game’s first nine points and were off and running to back-to-back district titles from there.

“We played well right from the start,” Big Red head coach Mike Haney, the Division III East District Coach of the Year, said. “Right from the tip we played good defense and rebounded well, got out in transition and started making shots. We’re really happy with the way we played start to finish.”

The win over the Cavaliers (17-7), who were the No. 3 seed and emerged from the Southeast side of the bracket, improves Big Red to 23-1 on the season and earns them a return trip to Athens next week.

They will take on the winner of Friday night’s Central District championship game on Tuesday back inside the Convo. The winner of that game goes back to the Convo next Saturday to play for a spot in the state final four.

“It’s a nice feeling, these guys deserve it,” coach Haney said. “The coaches all put a lot of work in and the players have worked hard for this. Thanks to our fans for coming down here on a school night and making the long trip.

“We’re really happy we get to come back.”

After the fast start, Santino Haney hit a deep triple at the first quarter buzzer to make the lead 16-4 after one.

Cole Bowers, who netted four of Steubenville’s 11 3-pointers in the game, knocked down treys on back-to-back possessions early in the second quarter to make the lead 22-6.

The lead grew to 17 three times in the quarter, the last of which was the margin (34-17) at halftime.

Landon Bowers nailed a triple early in the third to push the lead to 18 before Chillicothe went on its best push of the game, a 7-0 run to trim the margin to 11 with less than a minute to go in the third.

Santino Haney, though, stole the ball and went the other way, pulled up and drained a triple at the buzzer to make it a 50-34 lead after three.

From there, the lead grew to as many as 20 before the subs came in.

Despite Chillicothe having a noticeable size advantage, Big Red out-rebounded the Cavs 31-29. Cole Bowers led that effort with 10 boards, finishing with a double-double as he netted 12 points.

“That’s an amazing stat, I’ve been to games at Franciscan and West Liberty and this is the tallest team I’ve seen,” coach Haney said of the Cavaliers. “Everyone was over 6-foot-2. Our guys did a great job battling for rebounds.”

Santino Haney, the Division III East District Player of the Year, led the way with 21 points, seven rebounds, six assists and three steals.

Jermaine Moore finished with 10 points to put three in double figures. Tre Wiggins tallied eight points and three assists, also hitting two 3s.

Big Red shot 46.2 percent overall and 42.3 percent from beyond the arc.

Chillicothe was just 39.2 percent overall and 21.4 percent from 3. They were led by a game-high 22 points from Caydon Cox.

Big Red led the way in points off turnovers (13-11), second chance points (11-9) and fast break points (14-10).