Photo by Kim North Martins Ferry’s Alex Reese (5) drives to the basket Wednesday night as Monroe Central’s Chance Allen (5) tired to block the shot during action from the OVAC WVU Medicine Class 3A Tournament semifinal on Junior Winland Court in Woodsfield. Reese had 23 points, but the Purple Riders fell, 86-54.

WOODSFIELD — Monroe Central displayed why it earned the No. 1 seed in the OVAC WVU Medicine Class 3A Boys Basketball Championships Wednesday night.

The red-hot Seminoles (19-2) completed a three-game sweep of visiting Martins Ferry, 86-54, in semifinal action on Junior Winland Court. The game was originally scheduled for Tuesday night, but was postponed due to inclement weather. They had won 82-75 at Martins Ferry to start the season and prevailed 69-54 recently at home.

“I think we are pretty well balanced and we have a lot of good shooters,” Monroe Central head coach Mason Lang said. “When teams try to shut down our top two players – Tucker Howell and Case Allen – on the inside, we have some guys capable of stepping up and knocking down some shots from the perimeter. That’s what happened tonight.”

With the runaway victory — its seventh in a row — Monroe Central will meet No. 2 Wheeling Central for all the marbles Saturday at 6 p.m. inside the ECO Center. It will be the final game of five that day.

This game will serve as the season’s rubber-match between the two, with the Maroon Knights winning, 53-44, in the Sam Andy Classic at WesBanco Arena and the Seminoles, 63-47, in Woodsfield.

“Wheeling Central is always good. It will be a battle,” Lang said of Saturday’s matchup. “They are well-coached and have one of the best players (Eli Sancomb) in the Ohio Valley.”

With the game knotted at 8 midway through the first quarter, the talented Seminoles went on a 20-2 run for a 28-10 margin and then added seven more points for a 35-11 advantage and cruised from there.

“They played extremely well and, obviously, we didn’t,” Martins Ferry head coach Derek Edwards said. “I have responsibility for that myself. I don’t know how good our game plan was tonight on my end. I need to do a better job.

“I should have killed those runs with a couple of timeouts. I didn’t coach a good game,” Edwards admitted. “Obviously, they were at their darned near best tonight and we knew coming in that’s where we had to be to come out here and beat a very good team.

“That’s a credit to their poaching staff and their players. They played a fantastic game.”

Corbin Farnsworth drilled three consecutive treys to jump-start the Seminoles to a 21-10 lead after eight minutes. Monroe Central would finish the game with 14, including six of the bench’s eight from Jacob Fogle.

“He can shoot. He’s done that now for three years,” Lang praised Fogle’s effort. “He’s always ready when his number is called. It’s always great to have a player like that. He has that mindset that when he goes into the game, he’s going to hit some shots from the outside.”

Behind Fogle’s long-range accuracy, Monroe Central tickled the twine on half of its three-point attempts.

An ice-cold start from the floor to start the second quarter didn’t help the Purple Riders (10-10) as they fell behind 39-17 at the half.

“It’s hard to recover from something like that,” Edwards said of the second quarter where the Purple Riders scored a mere seven points on 3 of 11 shooting from the floor. “There are lessons in wins and lessons from losses. We’re going to take those lessons and practice tomorrow. Hopefully we work some things out.”

Monroe Central didn’t let up in the third quarter as Chance Allen netted eight of his 19 points which moved him into second place on the all-time Monroe Central scoring list with 1,075 career points. Fogle, who connected for five of his bonus bombs in the second half, tied Allen for team scoring honors. Farnsworth finished with 13 and Tucker Howell had 10 points – which featured three dunks – and a game-best eight rebounds. Cooper Howell, who had eight points, added six boards. The Seminoles held a 64-37 margin after three quarters and the OHSAA 35-point mercy rule kicked in on a triple by Fogle with six minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Alex Reese, Martins Ferry’s 6-6 Youngstown State University football signee, had a game-high 23 points, but 17 came in the second half with the game out of reach.

The Purple Riders will travel to Union Local on Friday in the third-place game.