EAST LIVERPOOL — Steubenville, which returned the majority of its staff which reached the D3 regional semifinals final season, jumped out to an 8-0 lead within the first 53 seconds of the sport and by no means seemed again in rolling to a 99-68 working clock win over a youthful East Liverpool squad in Potter Fieldhouse Friday night time.
It was the season-opening sport for Big Red, however Steubenville seemed in midseason kind offensively because it positioned 4 starters in double figures. Leading the best way was returning All-Ohio junior level guard Santino Haney who poured in a game-high 34 factors and was in double digits in assists in somewhat over three quarters of play.
“He plays hard,” mentioned Steubenville head coach Michael Haney of his multi-talented son’s efficiency. “He’s a team player and passes the basketball and stuff.”
“Haney is the best player on our schedule, hands down,” lauded East Liverpool head coach Kade Reynolds. “He does it all. He’s got a motor that doesn’t stop and he’s really, really impressive.”
Other double determine scorers including to Steubenville’s torrid, continuous quick break offense have been Tre’von Wiggins with 18 factors, Cole Bowers with 17 markers and Jermaine Moore with 12 factors.
Big Red completed with 11 three-pointers within the sport, led by Bowers with three, Haney, Moore and Wiggins with two every and Braidyn Edwards and Jeremiah Hinton with one trey apiece.
“We were kind of nervous, we only had eight practices (due to the football team’s extended playoff run), so we weren’t sure if we were in shape yet,” mirrored Haney. “We lost two starters (from the regional semifinal team) and (return three starters) and pretty much the bench and everybody. We’ve got eight guys back.”
“They return three starters and three big pieces,” mentioned Reynolds of Big Red. “They play unbelievably hard and play so well together. They share the ball.”
On the flip aspect, the Potters are beginning considered one of their youngest groups in class historical past.
“We have zero returning lettermen and zero starters back,” mentioned Reynolds. “We have one senior and 16 of our 24 kids are freshmen and sophomores, so we are very, very young.”
Despite its youth and opening towards seemingly the perfect staff on its schedule, the Potters performed nicely offensively and positioned three gamers in double digits, led by Dre’Keim Abercrombie who tallied 24 factors, whereas freshman Javan Dawson had 18 factors, together with 5 of the hosts’ seven three-pointers within the sport. Dre Brown completed with 10 factors.
“As long as we take our lumps (with a young team) but we take them and we learn,” defined the Potters’ coach whose staff is now 1-1 on the season. “We can’t take them and go backwards. We have to learn and grow from that and continue to get better.”
Big Red, led by its lightning-fast flooring sport, jumped out to a 35-21 lead after one quarter as Haney tossed in 21 factors within the opening quarter.
Steubenville’s expertise and quickness fueled its torrid first half. Big Red compelled 16 first-half turnovers out of the Potters (24 for the sport) with many ending in quick break factors for Big Red which took a 61-40 lead on the break.
“Big Red probably shot the ball at 60 percent and kudos to them,” mentioned Reynolds. “That’s a great program, but if we play the way we played tonight in the rest of our schedule we’ll win a lot of games and people in our league should be worried. We have to keep that same mentality moving forward.”
Haney led Steubenville within the first half with 27 factors.
East Liverpool’s Abercrombie had an excellent first half to steer the Potters with 19 factors at intermission.
“I thought our kids got punched early and came right back,” praised Reynolds whose younger staff saved battling offensively.
Haney favored his staff’s offensive efficiency however desires to see a greater effort on the defensive finish.
“Yeah, we played well,” mentioned the Steubenville mentor.
“Defensively we didn’t play very well, we weren’t happy with that. In the transition, they scored 40 points in the first half, but offensively we were able to get up and down the court.”
Big Red took a 91-55 lead after three quarters on two free throws by Josiah Rea which began a working clock all through the fourth quarter.
Michael Haney pulled all of his starters with 6:13 remaining within the sport with Big Red main 96-55. His reserves completed out the sport.
“That (getting to state) is always a goal,” mentioned the Big Red head coach. “But we always talk about one game at a time. We say we want to end up 1-0 (each game).”