Photo by Kim North St. Clairsville’s Griffin Straub (14) goes up to block a shot by East Liverpool’s Nate Birch during the first quarter of Tuesday night’s game.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — St. Clairsville and East Liverpool have developed quite a rivalry in boys’ high school basketball action over the past decade or so.

Tuesday night was no different as the host Red Devils handed the Potters (6-1) their first loss of the season with a 68-64 gut-check victory before a loud crowd at John Jenkins Court,

St. Clairsville head coach Ryan Clifford said he learned something about his team.

“After the way we didn’t perform last Thursday at Union Local, this was a good gut-check game early in the season against a really good basketball team. They were 6-0 for a reason,” he said. “I was especially proud of how, early in the season, we executed at both ends of the floor down the stretch. We understood what we were supposed to be doing. We were on the same page defensively. On offense, we got into stuff and took great shots in the fourth quarter.”

The tightly played contest was tied six times, the last at 62 following a Blake Adkins basket for East Liverpool with a little more than three minutes left in regulation.

However, St. Clairsville (2-1) scored six of the final eight points to pull out the win.

“Everybody had a hand in it. It’s a team win against a team we’ll probably see down the road somewhere.”

Brady Schafer’s driving scoop shot gave the Red Devils a 64-62 lead and Griffin Straub made it 66-62 when he softly put back a Red Devils’ missed shot with 1:45 on the clock.

Adkins made it 66-64 at the 1:22 mark and St. Clairsville turned the ball over – its only one of the quarter – but the Potters couldn’t take advantage.

After a 30-second timeout, first-year East Liverpool head coach Kade Reynolds had to burn another timeout five seconds later.

The Potters missed a shot with 30 seconds remaining and Tyson Pastor secured the rebound before being fouled.

The most recent member of the 1,000-point club tickled the twine twice to bump the count to 68-64 and sealed the deal.

The Red Devils led 20-15 after one quarter as Pastor (9), Straub (7) and Schafer (4) did the damage. Pastor had 15 of his game-best 27 in the first half. Straub finished with 15 and Schafer 14. Ollie Muhly only had seven points, but six came in the second half when needed.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence in him. He’s got a lot of time in.”

Adkins paced the Potters with 17 points, four more than D’Shawn Kirby. Birch added 10 and Cohen Pease nine. Kirby grabbed nine rebounds as East Liverpool led 34-31. Adkins added seven boards.

East Liverpool trailed 36-34 at the half but drew even at 47 midway through the third quarter and led by five, 56-51, entering the fourth quarter. However, three consecutive turnovers on as many trips down the floor to start the fourth spelled disaster.

“That was a great basketball game in a great atmosphere,” Reynolds said. “We got a little sloppy with the 5-point lead and turned the ball over a few times. It came back to bite us in the butt a little bit.

“We’ve been in this same position in four of our first six games and we’ve come out on top,” he added. “Tonight, our turnovers and missed foul shots got us.”

There were 11 lead changes in the game.