Members of the River girls’ basketball team celebrate their OVAC WVU Medicine Class 2A Girls Basketball Championship Saturday at the ECO Center. The Pilots navigated past Steubenville Catholic, 55-21. Photo by Kim North

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Rick Isaly has been coaching for more than two decades. However, the veteran River girls’ basketball coach hasn’t had to work as hard as he has this season to get his Pilots where he wants them to be.

All that hard work and determination paid off Saturday night inside the ECO Center when second-seeded River (13-8) stunned top-seeded Steubenville Catholic, 55-21, in the OVAC WVU Medicine Class 2A Girls Basketball Championships.

With the lop-sided victory, River had now captured three consecutive conference championships, something a lot of people didn’t think would happen due to graduation losses from last season.

“We’ve worked really hard for this moment,” Isaly allowed. “I’ve never coached harder in my 21 years than I have this year to get this group of girls to where I think they are a championship team.”

Carleigh Trifonoff led all scorers in the game with 16 points, with 12 coming on a quartet of treys. Two of those bonus goals helped the Pilots to an early 16-6 advantage and they never slowed down in leading 28-12 at the half.

“She stepped up big time today,” Isaly said of his prized freshman who was voted the John Howell Most Valuable Player. “I knew all year that she could be that type of player, and today she showed that she can be. She saved her best game for today.”

“We showed our inexperience today,” Steubenville Catholic head coach Rocky Bragg said. “We knew coming into this season that it was going to be a challenge in different parts of the game for us. We’ve had games this year where we’ve struggled with our shooting, and today was another one of them.”

The Crusaders (13-8) shot just over 20 percent (5-for-21) in the first half and charted 13 of their 24 turnovers. They were 8-for-38 for the game (21.1 percent), including an ice-cold 1 of 14 from beyond their three-point arc.

“We tried to stay positive, but it seems that an atmosphere like this is too big for us,” Bragg added. “We have a lot of heart and a lot of determination. Now these girls are hungry to get back here next year.”

A suffocating halfcourt trapping defense stymied the Crusaders, especially in the second quarter when they turned the ball over nine times.

“The funny thing is we practiced against it all week,” Bragg admitted. “We practiced against the full court and halfcourt trapping defenses. We talked about our options and what we wanted to look for, but it’s a different feeling when you get into the game. When you get into the game, everything apparently looks different.”

River, which committed just eight turnovers, also received double-digit scoring from Kaylee Hagan (13) and Reese Hobbs (11) who teamed for two dozen.

Mara Delaney was the lone twin figure scorer for Steubenville Catholic with 12. Mary Rohde had a game-high nine rebounds as the Crusaders led, 32-31, off the glass. Hobbs had seven rebounds for River, one more than Maci Isaly who also charted four assists. Hagan added four rebounds and a like number of steals.

With the win, Isaly has now won five OVAC championships in eight appearances.