Photo by Kim North Bellaire’s Caleb Jewell (11) shoots over top of Steubenville Catholic’s Tommy Pegi in second half action Friday night inside the ‘House of Champions.’ The Crusaders pulled away for a 61-39 victory. Jewell led the Big Reds with 13 points.

BELLAIRE — Steubenville Catholic spoiled Bellaire’s Senior Night festivities with a second-half surge Friday night inside the ‘House of Champions.’

The Crusaders (16-3) snapped a 23-all deadlock midway through the second quarter with a 10-5 run for a 33-28 halftime advantage and then went on a 10-0 run to end the third quarter, leading 48-35 en route to a convincing, 61-39, rout of the Big Reds.

Eight Bellaire basketball players and four cheerleaders were recognized prior to the game.

“Whenever you come down here you have to make adjustments to the physical-style of play,” Steubenville Catholic head coach Don Ogden said. “Our kids responded. Early on I thought we were undisciplined on defense with some reaching and grabbing, but corrected that and got more disciplined.

“We switched up defenses in the second half and it paid off,” Ogden continued.

“We pride ourselves on allowing one shot only. In fact, we keep a stat on that.”

Steubenville Catholic earned the top seed in next week’s OVAC WVU Medicine Class 2A Boys Basketball Championships, something that had Ogden a little nervous prior to the game.

“Sometimes you get into the OVACs and then the next game you kind of relax, but the kids didn’t tonight,” the veteran head coach said. “I’m really proud of them, so it’ll be a nice ride home.”

Benji Rook led all scorers with 22 points, with 16 of those coming in the second quarter when the Crusaders started to make their move. He had six straight after Bellaire drew even at 23. Tommy Pergi worked the paint for 15 and Timmy Mihalyo added 10. Andrew Rohde pulled down seven rebounds, one more than Pergi.

The Crusaders were only guilty of eight turnovers, while Bellaire had 17.

Caleb Jewell finished with 13 points to lead the Big Reds. Raekwon Pettigrew, who was saddled with four fouls early in the second half and did not return, added nine markers. Maurice Webb had seven points and a game-best 10 rebounds.

“They have a good, senior-dominated team,” Bellaire head coach J.R. Battista said of the Crusaders. “They played really well and made shots. They boarded us up and we only got one shot on our end of the floor. We didn’t play our best.

“We had a lot of unforced turnovers in the first half, but we were only down five points,” Battista recalled. “We couldn’t buy a basket in the second half and we continued to turn the ball over at inopportune times.”