GOING UP — Big Red’s Will Taylor goes up for a layup during Friday’s game at East Liverpool. – Jimmy Joe Savage

EAST LIVERPOOL — It was truly a tale of two halves when long-time rivals East Liverpool and Steubenville met in a boys basketball rematch before a large crowd at Potter Fieldhouse Friday night.

For much of the first half, the taller Potters were able to control the tempo and led by as many as 10 points on two occasions.

But all that changed in the second half, when hot-shooting Steubenville went on a 20-5 run to open the third quarter and never looked back in cruising to an 88-72 win over the Potters.

“The third quarter is one of our favorite quarters, the third quarter decides a lot of basketball games, and unfortunately, we came out on the low end of the third quarter and they just pounced on us,” said East Liverpool coach Kade Reynolds. “They went on a heck of a run, and kudos to Big Red.”

“We didn’t play very well in that first quarter and we talked about it before that they are bigger than us and they were getting rebounds and transition layups, and then they started making some open threes,” said Steubenville coach Michael Haney. “So we told them we’ve got to stop doing that and whoever was back (on defense) to stay back. We stopped that and then we started making shots.”

Making shots would be an understatement for Big Red.

Steubenville placed four players in double figures, led by standout guard Aiden Davis, who took game-scoring honors with 30 points, including five of Steubenville’s 11 three-pointers in the game. Big Red placed four players in double digits, as Will Taylor added 24 points, multi-talented point guard Santino Haney finished with 15 points and Cole Bowers ended with 11.

“I thought they all played well and we played as a team,” praised Michael Haney. “The first eight guys did a good job — all of them.”

“I don’t know of a (D3) team in our district as good as Big Red,” said Reynolds, whose Potters expect to be one of the top tourney teams in Division IV. “In the second half they just made us turn the ball over and Davis got really, really hot and when he’s playing like that, they’re going to be tough to beat.”

Leading East Liverpool was Quintin Conrad who poured in 18 points, while guard Cohen Pease had 14 , Nate Birch added 13 and Blake Adkins had 12.

“We got off to a great start and if we play the rest of the season like we played in the first half, we can make a deep run, we really can,” observed Reynolds.

East Liverpool, which lost to Steubenville by 37 points (80-43) earlier in the season at the Crimson Center, shocked Big Red early, taking a pair of 10-point leads at 21-11 and 24-14 and led Steubenville 24-18 after one.

Big Big Red went on a 16-5 run in the second quarter and took a 37-36 lead on a layup by Davis with 3:47 showing before the break. Big Red held a three-point (44-41) in a fast-paced first half.

But Steubenville was clicking on both offense and defense in the second half, hitting shots inside and outside, while its defense forced turnovers out of the hosts. It all added up to a 20-5 run and an 18-point (64-46) lead by the visitors following a conventional three-point play by Davis at the 3:03 mark of the third period.

“They have a really good chance to go a long way,” said Reynolds. “When their guards play like they do — they’re not very big — but when their guards play like that and they shoot the ball (they’re good), and the way they play defense is impressive.”

Steubenville went on to take a 70-53 advantage after three quarters and took its largest lead of the night at 27 points (85-58) with just over four minutes left. Haney cleared his bench soon after and East Liverpool narrowed the final deficit to 16 points.

Steubenville improved to 15-2. East Liverpool moved to 14-6.

“It’s a great opponent, no matter what division they’re in,” said Reynolds. “They’re a really good basketball team and our kids battled them in the first half. We gave them our best shot and if we clean some things up, I think we’ll be OK.”

ST: 21-23-26-18–88

EL: 26-15-12-19–72

EAST LIVERPOOL SCORING: Gavin Wright 1-2-4, D’Shawn Kirby 2-0-4, Blake Adkins 6-0-12, Nate Birch 3-6-13, Quintin Conrad 8-0-18, Owen Fredritz 2-0-5, Julius Jones 0-0-0, Dre’Keim Abercrombie 1-0-2, Cohen Pease 6-0-14, E. Fitch 0-0-0. TEAM TOTALS: 29, 7-12: 72

STEUBENVILLE SCORING: Jeremiah Hinton 1-0-3, Aiden Davis 12-1-30, Santino Haney 5-5-15, Tre’von Wiggins 2-0-4, Cole Bowers 3-3-11, L. Bowers 0-0-0, Che’meir Adams 0-0-0, Will Taylor 9-3-24, Najeh Simon 0-0-0, Josiah Rea 0-1-1. TEAM TOTALS: 32,13-17: 88

Three-point goals: Steubenville 11 (Aiden Davis 5, Will Taylor 3, Cole Bowers 2, Jeremiah Hinton 1). East Liverpool 6 (Nate Birch 2, Cohen Pease 2, Quintin Conrad 2, Owen Fredritz 1).

Total fouls: Steubenville 14, East Liverpool 16. Fouled out: D’Shawn Kirby.