Photo by Nick Henthorn Martins Ferry’s Giana Chirpas follows-through on a 3-point shot Tuesday against Wheeling Central. Chirpas scored 23 points with six rebounds against the Maroon Knights.

WHEELING — There were no early-season tuneups to be found on Coach Skip Prosser Court on Tuesday, as Wheeling Central began their season against Martins Ferry, themselves playing in just their third game of the season, in a heavyweight clash between talented teams.

Central notched the final blow against the Purple Riders, 78-67, in a game where Ferry got within four in the fourth quarter, only for the Maroon Knights to pull away late.

“It was a good game,” Martins Ferry head coach Dave Reasbeck said. “If it’s not the two best teams in the Ohio Valley who just played, it’s two of the best teams in the Ohio Valley who just played, and I’m not afraid to say that.

“We loaded our schedule up this year because we thought we were going to be good. This is one of the three or four games that I had circled where I thought we might be in a little trouble. [Central’s] a good basketball team, they got a Division-II basketball player, they’ve got a girl who’s won a state championship. We played in their gym, great atmosphere, great crowd.”

Central never trailed Tuesday, a 6-6 score early on being the only tie. Martins Ferry got within two in middle of the third quarter, Giana Chirpas’ putback getting the Riders to a 38-36 deficit with 5:43 on the clock, but Central went on an 11-4 run thereafter, and a Kaitlyn Blake full-court outlet pass to Seneca Heller for a final-seconds lay-in had the Knights ahead 58-47 at the end of the period.

That script repeated itself in the fourth, with the Purple Riders shaving the deficit down to a thin margin, only for Wheeling Central to respond.

“They got it to four, and then we ran a play and Addie drilled that 3 from the corner,” Wheeling Central head coach Roberta Olejasz said. “Addie Payton shot lights-out tonight.”

Payton made five 3-pointers Tuesday, accounting for all of Central’s 3-point makes, and finished with 17 points.

Kaitlyn Blake started her season with her first double-double, scoring 20 points with 13 rebounds. Heller began her career with the Maroon Knights with an 18-point, five-assist effort, tied with Blake for the team-high.

Wheeling Central led 19-14 at the end of the first quarter and 34-28 at the half.

“We started off a little shaky, a bunch of turnovers in the first half and then I thought we started sharing the ball really well in the second half, pulled ourselves together,” Olejasz said. “We had four players in double figures, they just started moving the ball and sharing the ball really well.”

Central’s Haley Severns scored 15 to go with six rebounds.

Martins Ferry had the 3-ball to thank for helping keep things close in the first quarter, making four from the perimeter, including three from Giana Chirpas. Wheeling Central made two in the quarter.

In the second quarter, Ferry ended the half on a 10-2 run, capitalizing on a series of Central turnovers instigated by the Purple Riders’ full-court press. Central had seven turnovers in the second quarter.

“I think they’re a really good team. Lindsey Best played really well tonight, Giana Chirpas drilled 3’s on us tonight, Martins Ferry is just a really good basketball team,” Olejasz said.

Best (24 points, five rebounds, five assists) and Chirpas (23 points, six rebounds) powered Martins Ferry, who came into Tuesday 2-0.

“Everybody thinks we’re going to be really good this year– we start three 15-year-olds who don’t drive to practice yet,” Reasbeck said after the game. “Mom and Dad still take them to practice. We’re not there yet, but playing games like this will get us there. There were some big-wigs in the valley who weren’t watching boys games, they came to watch our game.

“We’re going to get there, but we’re going to take some bumps. Maddie Lucas played tremendous, Chirpas played tremendous, Lindsey Best played a tremendous second half. But we’ve got to do it for 32 minutes and we got beat by a really good basketball team.”

Lucas scored a dozen for the Purple Riders.

The home team out-rebounded Martins Ferry 34-22, a major factor Tuesday, led by their frontline with height and length aplenty from Blake, Severns and Bella Fitzsimmons.

“We need to be all over the glass this season, and I thought we were all over the glass tonight,” Olejasz said. “Bella Fitzsimmons did a great job on the glass, Kaitlyn did a great job on the glass, Morgan Miehle came in and did a great job, and Haley was all over the boards tonight.”

The two teams will meet again on Martins Ferry’s homecourt on January 8. The Knights and Riders are also each in OVAC Class 3A and could meet in the conference tournament.

“We’ll hopefully see them not just one more time but maybe another,” Olejasz said.

“We just got beat by a really great team tonight that we’re going to see, hopefully, two more times this year,” Reasbeck said.

For now though, Wheeling Central hits the road Friday to face Bridgeport (W.Va) and Martins Ferry returns home Saturday to play River.