Photo by Kim North
St. Clairsville’s Griffin Straub (14) makes a move in the paint against Marion Pleasant Saturday during the 12th annual Buckeye 8 Challenge inside the ECO Center west of St. Clairsville.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Ryan Clifford knows his St. Clairsville boys’ basketball team isn’t close to its full potential, so the Red Devils will keep working towards that goal.

“It used to make me mad when I’d hear the old-time coaches say ‘you really don’t know who you are until January,’ but that couldn’t be any more true than right now.”

Saturday afternoon inside the ECO Center, Clifford watched his team put forth another gut-check effort in holding off Marion Pleasant, 62-56, in the middle game of the 12th annual Buckeye 8 Challenge.

“We’re nowhere near a finished product right now,” Clifford admitted. “We went on a long road trip last night (to Beaver Local), played four quarters and then came back today and played against a good team,” Clifford recalled of a loss on Friday night. “Any score would have been nice today as long as we had one more point than they did.”

The Red Devils (3-2) got off to a flying start as Tyson Pastor scored half of his game-high 22 in the opening eight minutes and Griffin Straub added seven of his 19.

“Our good guys showed up today and that’s the key for us,” Clifford added. “We’re a long way from being finished this early in the year.”

St. Clairsville led by 13 midway through the second quarter before the Spartans (3-4) cut it to 29-22 at the half.

Marion Pleasant got to within eight at the end of three quarters and drew to as close as four, 58-54, in the waning seconds but Straub tickled the twine twice on free throws with 40.2 to make it 60-54. After another Marion Pleasant basket, Kaden Clifford sealed the deal with a pair of charity tosses.

Brady Schafer added 13 points for the Red Devils. Straub finished with eight rebounds and was named the game MVP.

The Red Devils had just seven turnovers.

Alec Columber led four Spartans in double figures with 17.

Marion Pleasant was coached by Ohio Valley native Ben Snively, whose dad Terry was a long-time football coach at River High School.

Coshocton 70, Martins Ferry 42

The Purple Riders got off to an 8-0 start but the Redskins rallied to tie the game at 10 after eight minutes.

It was all Coshocton after that as it outscored Martins Ferry (3-3) by a 17-5 count in the second quarter and never looked back.

“I thought we started out very well and had the game where we wanted it, but we weren’;t able to keep it where we wanted it and from there, Coshocton really dictated the game,” Martins Ferry head coach Derek Edwards said. “We didn’t do a very good job of moving without the basketball and sharing the basketball in the second quarter. When you have to start scrambling, it’s hard against a team like that.”

Game MVP Colton Conkle netted a game-best 26 points and pulled down 13 rebounds to pace the Redskins (6-1), who dropped their first game the night before to Maysville. Alex Taylor added 15 points and Logan Lonsberry knocked down four triples for 12.

Youngstown State football recruit Alex Reese paced Martins Ferry with 18 points and a game-leading 14 rebounds. Elijah Smith had eight points and seven boards.

The Purple Riders were short-handed after losing two players to injury the night before in a win at Bellaire. Starter Anthony Booth twisted an ankle and reserve Jermale Thompson hurt his knee.

The Redskins had 10 bonus goals, including a 5-for-5 effort in the third quarter.

“Sure, they made shots, but we didn’t make them miss shots,” Edwards noted. “We’ve got to do a better job of that.”

Martins Ferry returns to the court Monday against Wheeling Central. The Maroon Knights won the earlier meeting this season.