MILESTONE REACHED — Central coach Don Ogden congratulates Benji Rook on reaching 1,000 career points. - Andrew Grimm

STEUBENVILLE — Catholic Central was hopeful senior Benji Rook would be able to hit the 1,000 career point mark during the Watt/Nese Classic on Friday. 

Not only did he hit the mark, he blew past it in racking up a game-high 30 points to lead the Crusaders to a 65-54 victory over Bellaire inside the Crimson Center. 

Rook hit the milestone midway through the second quarter when he swished a 3-pointer for his 16-18th points of the game, giving him the mark. He went on to score 12 more. 

“Congratulations to Benji Rook on scoring 1,000 points, that’s a great accomplishment,” Central head coach Don Ogden said. “He knows that it’s a team effort, he can’t do it all by himself. We had great team effort against a good team.

“Everybody played a role and everybody contributed in their roles. I couldn’t be happier with this win.”

The Crusaders, now 8-1, started fast, scoring the game’s first eight points. 

Bellaire, though, raced back to lead 16-13 after one, before Central surged back ahead by a 33-31 mark at halftime. 

In the second half, the Crusaders led most of the way, though the Big Reds (4-5) rallied to within three in the fourth quarter. 

Central, though, went 11 of 15 from the foul line in the fourth quarter to fend off the rally and pull back ahead for the 11-point victory. 

“Bellaire’s coach JR (Battista) is one of the best,” Ogden said. “This was a good, hard-fought game between two evenly matched teams that played hard down to the wire. It’s stressful during the game, but after the game you appreciate a game like that.”

Rook was the game MVP for Central, while Roekwan Pettegrew was Bellaire’s with 23 tallies in the score book.

For Central, Camden Bradley netted 13 and Tommy Pergi added 10.  

UP NEXT

Central was slated to take a trip up the river to Oak Glen on Saturday before hosting Big Red on Jan. 3.