ON THE MOVE — Big Red’s Lucy Saccoccia drives with the ball past a Tri-Valley defender while teammate Phynyx Fleming looks on during Wednesday’s district semifinal game at Cambridge. - Kim North

CAMBRIDGE — When a team commits more turnovers than points it scores, that’s a sure-fire recipe for disaster. Steubenville found out first-hand Wednesday night.

No. 2 Big Red (16-8) was guilty of 23 turnovers, with 13 coming in the first half when it fell behind early and never recovered in a 43-15 loss to top-seeded Tri-Valley (21-3) inside Geno Ford Gymnasium in a Division III East/Southeast District semifinal game at Cambridge High School.

“Tri-Valley had a game plan and they executed it,” Steubenville head coach Angelita Forte said. “They were the better team tonight. We struggled getting shots off and we just couldn’t get anything going offensively, and you can credit their defense for that.”

The Scotties held an 8-4 lead after a turnover-filled first quarter but used a 10-0 run midway through the second quarter to pull away for a 20-12 halftime advantage. In addition to the 13 turnovers, Big Red only connected on 4 of 21 shots from the floor.

“”Tri-Valley has a good program. They’ve got a bunch of kids who work hard and are physical,” Forte added.

To compound matters, Steubenville went scoreless for the entire third quarter and more than half of the fourth before Lucy Saccoccia scored on a layup after a steal at midcourt with 3:30 left to play.

During that span, Tri-Valley reeled off 19 points to take command.

Nylah McShan led Big Red with nine points. Only three other players cracked the scoring column. The junior also snagged a game-best 14 rebounds.

Big Red finished 5-for-35 from the floor and had 27 rebounds.

Ohio Division III Eastern/Southeastern District Semifinal

(at Cambridge H.S.)

Tri-Valley 43, Steubenville 15

STEUBENVILLE – Saccoccia 1 0-0 2; Scurry 0 0-0 0; Fleming 0 0-2 0; McShan 3 3-5 9; Beall 1 0-0 3; Vein 0 0-0 0; Bickerstaff 0 0-0 0; Casinelli 0 0-0 0; Green 0 1-2 1`; Tota;ls: 5-35 4-9 15. TRI-VALLEY – Garber 2 0-0 6; Collet 2 1-3 5; Wilson 1 0-0 2; Rollison 2 0-0 6; Harvey 4 0-0 11; Smith 3 1-2 7; Ree. Lamonica 2 0-0 4; Totals: 17-43 2-7 43

Three-point goals: Steubenville 1 (Beall). Tri-Valley 7 (Garber 2, Rollison 2, Harvey 3)