Photo by Andrew Grimm Steubenville’s Nylah McShan puts up a shot inside during Big Red’s OVAC 5A Championship game against Morgantown on Saturday inside the ECO Center.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Big Red battled hard against the top-ranked team in West Virginia, but one last big push from Morgantown allowed the Mohigans to leave the ECO Center with the OVAC Class 5A trophy on Saturday.

Big Red, which trailed by 14 points in the second quarter and 11 late in the third quarter, battled all the way back to within three early in the fourth, but Morgantown scored the next 10-straight to pull back away for good on the way to a 63-50 victory in the conference championship game.

“I’m proud of the girls, they played really hard,” Big Red head coach Angie Forte said. “There were a couple 50-50 balls that didn’t go our way, we had some players in foul trouble … but the girls kept battling.

“Morgantown is very good in every position and very fundamentally sound. They got the job done.”

Nylah McShan had a big day for Big Red in the defeat, scoring a game-high 30 points to go with seven rebounds and an assist despite playing the entire fourth quarter with four fouls.

The Mohigans (14-2), ranked No. 1 in West Virginia Class 4A and the top seed in the tournament, jumped out to a 7-2 lead and looked to be off to the races, but Big Red (13-7) came pushing right back to take an 8-7 lead. That, however, proved to be the only Steubenville lead in the game as Morgantown scored the final seven points of the quarter, then used a 6-0 run in the second to open a 14-point lead, holding a 12-point advantage at the break.

Big Red battled to within five in the third quarter, but again the Mohigans had an answer, pushing back in front by 11 after three.

Big Red’s last best push came with seven-straight points from McShan to get the margin down to three and force a Morgantown timeout, but the Mohigans had one final answer with a 10-0 run, its biggest of the game, to all but put things away.

“We showed a lot of toughness and grit in that game,” Morgantown head coach John Fowkes said. “Steubenville is a tough and their kids play with that attitude and grit, I think it showed a lot of toughness from our girls. We played Parkersburg, the No. 4 team in the state, (Friday night) and had to come back 18 hours later against a team like Steubenville that plays that hard. We showed a lot of toughness in the fourth quarter, our kids responded like we hoped they would after the timeout.

“Give a lot of credit to Steubenville, they never gave up. I don’t know if our kids thought they would, but they didn’t and kept playing hard, they made a run and made us respond. We were excited to play a team like them from a different state that plays the way they do.”

The Mohigans were led by game MVP Sadaya Jones with 25 points, 10 rebounds and three steals, while Kayli Kellogg netted 20 points and seven rebounds and Brenna Nelson netted 10 points.

The Mohigans did a lot of their damage on second chance points, holding a 19-2 advantage in the category.

“I think we showed we can play through adversity, we have to do a better job of securing rebounds and limiting second chance opportunities, but the girls kept playing hard and responded,” Forte said. “The girls played, we have some things to clean up for the tournament but we’ll get back to work.

“It meant a lot to the girls to make it here, we talked a lot about not just being satisfied to be here and I thought they played really hard. Sometimes the ball just didn’t bounce our way.”

UP NEXT

Steubenville: Hosts River Monday to end the regular season before it opens OHSAA East District tournament play hosting Zanesville on Wednesday.

Morgantown: Comes back to Belmont County on Monday to take on Martins Ferry.