Mineral Ridge’s Chase Moore looks to the basket against Lowellville’s Drew Modelski during the first half of their game, Wednesday night at Mineral Ridge High School. (David Dermer/Warren Tribune Chronicle)

WEATHERSFIELD — It was a Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference showdown when Mineral Ridge hosted Lowellville on Wednesday, and the Rams were victorious 61-48.

“I’m enjoying my time here,” first-year Mineral Ridge coach Marcus Higgs said. “Tonight, we started out well. We made some mistakes in the second quarter. Lowellville started to make some shots.”

The Rams built a 7-0 lead, in the first quarter, after a layup from sophomore Derrick Hester. Drew Modelski (team-high 15 points) finally got the Rockets on the scoreboard four minutes into the contest.

Senior Bruce Brenner (11 points) dove into the stands to save a loose ball for Lowellville. Then, Ricky Willrich nailed a 3-pointer from straight away. However, Thomas Canowski made a three from the corner just before the buzzer to give Mineral Ridge a 16-9 lead heading to the second.

Brenner made one from downtown to start the second, and Kayden Shaffer connected from behind the arc as well. Modelski scored on a turnaround in the post, and made a nice no-look pass, but the Rams still led 27-23 at halftime.

“We talked about going to a man defense at halftime,” Higgs said. “We didn’t want to let them get anything easy. We were able to limit their shots, and we were able to score inside.”

Junior Chase Moore did the majority of the scoring by posting a game and career-high 25 points.

“Credit to my teammates for finding me open in the paint,” Moore said. “Our defense stepped up. We stopped their bigs inside. We played help defense like we knew we needed to. This was all about my teammates.”

Jordan Moore (10 points) cleaned things up underneath the basket. Nick Anderson drilled one from deep, and the Rams led 42-36 after three quarters.

“Chase Moore had a big night tonight,” Higgs said. “He was able to finish inside. Some other guys contributed that didn’t play that much. It was a good team effort. We’re looking forward to the rest of the season. We’ll be playing some tough teams. So, we’ve gotta be ready to go.”

Landon Bingham scored for Ridge (7-7) to begin the fourth quarter. Chase Moore scored again to make the deficit 12 points. Then, the Rockets cut it back to five points, 50-45, with 2:45 remaining in regulation thanks to a 3-pointer from Vincent Sullivan.

Lowellville (5-11) went to a full-court press, but the Rams beat it. Turnovers down the stretch spoiled any chance the Rockets had at a comeback.

Tony Matisi is in his first season as the boys basketball coach at Lowellville after spending 15 years as the girls coach, and another five years as the girls coach at McDonald.

“We had plenty of good looks,” Matisi said. “We just couldn’t put enough good possessions in a row together. Their size killed us. Anytime they needed a bucket, they were working it down low.”