Photo by Kim North St. Clairsville’s Kambel Sall (24) pulls down one of his five rebounds Tuesday night against Bellaire.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Due to the elongated football season which stretched into week 14, St. Clairsville had to postpone its first two boys’ basketball games.

That also meant the Red Devils were without four starters for most of the preseason.

Need not worry, the lone non-football-playing starter — 6-9 Griffin Straub — fueled a near-perfect 27-point first quarter Tuesday night as St. Clairsville finally debuted with a workmanlike, 80-44, triumph over visiting Bellaire on John Jenkins Court inside St. Clairsville High School.

“We executed at a very high level. On opening night, you never know what you are going to get,” St. Clairsville head coach Ryan Clifford said. “Outside of making shots, I thought we concentrated on what we were supposed to do on both ends of the floor. I can’t be any more pleased with the way we played, especially in the first half.”

The Red Devils connected on 12 of 15 first-quarter shots, with Straub hitting two three-pointers and recording one of his four first-half dunks. Tyson Pastor, who reached the 1,000-point mark for his career last season, went 4-for-4 from the field to match Straub. Brady Schafer had six points, making all three of his shots.

“We were passing up shots to get better quality shots,” Clifford added. “I can’t remember a bad shot that we took in the first quarter. We have some guys with good skills, and when we take shots we’re capable of knocking them down.”

Straub added nine points in the second quarter — six coming off dunks — as the Red Devils extended their margin to 50-23. Schafer had 13 at the half, one more than Pastor. The trio saw some action in the third quarter but watched from the bench in the fourth.

“On opening night you never know what to expect,” Clifford added. “If we had any first-game jitters, we played through them.”

Raekwon Pettigrew was the lone double-digit scorer for Bellaire with 14. The Big Reds were 20-for-58 (35 percent). They also had 12 turnovers.

“St. Clairsville played as well as it could have in the first quarter. They overwhelmed us with their skill and rebounding,” veteran Bellaire head coach J.R. Battista said. “We were one-and-down and they were scoring at will. It (the lead) stretched out and we were never really able to threaten them.”

St. Clairsville finished 34 of 65 (52 percent) but cooled off significantly after the red-hot start.

Straub finished with a game-best 20 points. Pastor had 19 and Schafer 13. Nine different Red Devils etched their name in the scorebook, while five had at least one bonus bomb.

“I’ve said it to anyone who will listen. I think Luke is going to have a breakout season, but let’s not forget about Tyson and Brady,” Clifford continued.

St. Clairsville also had a comfortable 48-28 advantage off the glass as Straub, Pastor, Drew Gasber and Kambel Sall all had five each. Pettigrew had game honors with six.

The Red Devils only turned the ball over seven times, including just once in the initial quarter and none in the third.

“Those younger guys have to go against the older guys every day in practice, so they are battle-tested,” Clifford said. “They are used to taking care of the ball.”

St. Clairsville travels west on I-70 Thursday to meet Union Local. Bellaire heads home to host Barnesville the same night.

“These kids will never quit playing hard,” Battista added. “We just need to re-group. We’ve got two more games this week and we can’t let this loss lead to another one.”