Big Red staves off Panthers

RAYLAND - Winning for the second time over Buckeye Local this season, Big Red head coach Mike Haney's club boosted its record to 3-1. Big Red topped the Panthers, 69-65 in Rayland Tuesday.

Steubenville also topped the Panthers on Dec. 12 at the Crimson Center.

Big Red is back in action on Monday at Edison in a make-up of Saturday night's postponement.

Buckeye dropped to 2-4 with the loss and will be back on the court Tuesday when the Panthers go on the road to face Hiland. The game will be a return to the alma mater of Panther head coach Gary Raber.

"It was a really big win," an elated Haney said after the victory. "Buckeye is a really good team. Trying to stop Joe Rine and (Zach) Bonds on the outside getting shots, being on the road that makes it a big win."

"Even though it was only a few points, we had a big lead and we let it run down, but in the end it was just a matter of taking care of the ball," Haney said in assessing the win. "Nobody got upset. We called timeout and told them to just take care of the ball and they took care of it."

"We were going up and down the court early, but in the fourth quarter we made some bad passes. We kept our cool and were able to make some key shots down the stretch."

After Bonds opened the scoring with a layup for Buckeye, Big Red became the dominant force on the court scoring 17 of the next 22 points.

Back-to-back treys by T.J. DeChristopher and Shaq Petteway and a deuce by Anthony Pierro put Big Red on top, 8-2. Following a Joe Rine bucket for the hosts, Dwight Macon, Trey Jones and Jordan Meyer teamed to lead Steubenville on a 9-3 run that catapulted the visitors into a 17-7 lead.

Hustling Nick Piergallini converted a layup and Bonds canned a jumper then one of two at the line to narrow the gap to 17-12. Pierro drained a three at the buzzer to open a 20-12 lead at the first break.

In the second stanza, Buckeye rallied from a 23-12 deficit with a 10-2 spurt. Bobby Spence scored on back-to-back trips down the court.

After Big Red's Trey Terry converted a put-back, Spence dished to Rine for two.

Panthers sophomore Brandon Borkoski then meshed two at the stripe and Rine added a bucket to cut the margin to 25-22.

Again, Big Red showed its resiliency by getting timely buckets from DeChristopher, DeMichael Johnson and Terry and another 3-pointer from Pierro to thwart the Panther advances and build a 38-27 lead at the half.

After the teams drew even through the third, Big Red entered the final session with a 56-45 upperhand. Jesse Birden opened the frame with a score off a rebound that extended the margin to 58-45.

Twice the two teams traded scores with Steubenville still holding on to a 61-49 lead, but the hosts went on a 9-0 run with seven coming from the hot-shooting Rine narrowing margin to 61-58.

Macon cashed a pair at the line with 1:31 on the clock and Rine followed at 1:14 driving the lane for two. DeChristopher canned a deuce and Macon scored off a Jones dish to extend the gap to 67-60. Piergallini then netted 1-of-2 tries at the line with 39.1 seconds remaining, Bonds converted two free throws at the 23.5-second mark and Piergallini drained a long jumper with 5.8 seconds left pulling to within 67-65. Pierro came through to ice the win with four ticks remaining, cashing two at the line.

"Down by 18 points at one time, the kids got a lot of fight in them. They could have folded, but they didn't," a dejected Raber said after the setback. "One thing we know as coaches, these kids can come out and play, but we need to see that for 32 minutes and not 16 minutes."

"I think if we come out with that intensity, we are a pretty dangerous team," he added. "First quarter, second quarter, if we can get that intensity out of the kids, I think good things will happen."

"Shots started to fall in the fourth quarter and our free throws, we are getting there. We are getting better (free throw shooting) every time. We just have to put fourth quarters together."

Four Big Red players scored in twin figures as Pierro led the way with 15 points, Macon added 14 and Jones and DeChristopher had 10 each.

Macon led the Big Red rebounders with eight.

Rine paced the Panthers scoring with 26 game-high points while Bonds was right behind with 18 and Spence had 11. Rine close with nine rebounds and Spence collared six.

In the jayvee contest, Steubenville rallied from a large first half deficit to pull out a 51-43 win as Chris Sherrell paced Big Red with 14 points while Willie Pruitt and Jordan Meyer added seven each. Buckeye picked up 11 points from Logan Mains, nine from Josiah Hannen and eight from Tyler Richardson.

Big Red 69, Buckeye Local 65

Steubenville 20 18 18 13 - 69

Buckeye Local 12 15 18 20 - 65

STEUBENVILLE (3-1): Jones 5, 00- 10; Petteway 1, 0-1 3; Macon 4, 5-6 14; Thomas 0, 0-0 0; Meyer 0, 1-2 1; DeChristopher 4, 0-0 10; Pierro 5, 2-2 15; Johnson 4, 0-0; Birden 1, 0-0 2; Terry 3, 0-0 6. 3-pointers: Pierro (3), DeChristopher (2), Macon, Petteway. Totals, 27-68, 8-11 69.

BUCKEYE LOCAL (2-4): Masloski 0, 0-0 0; Bonds 7, 4-6 18; Spence 5, 1-2 11; Rine 11, 4-8 26; Piergallini 3, 1-2 7; Mains 0, 0-0 0; Borkoski 0, 3-4 3. Totals, 26-50, 13-22 65.