Staff photo / Preston Byers Campbell’s Mihali Koullias (left) and Christos Davis celebrate after defeating McDonald in Campbell on Tuesday.

CAMPBELL — The Campbell Memorial boys basketball team finished their first season in the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Scarlet tier about as well as possible.

The Red Devils clinched the outright league title Tuesday in Campbell with a come-from-behind 59-54 victory vs. McDonald.

The meeting of the Devils began to tip in favor of McDonald, which led by 11 points at halftime, but a quick start to the third quarter by Campbell and a rough time shooting in the second half allowed the Red Devils to edge out the Blue Devils and secure the conference championship on their home court.

“It’s special,” Campbell coach Nick Canterino said of winning the league title. “It being the first year in this new tier, we wanted to come out and kind of set the tone for it. We definitely thought that was one of our goals, to win the league. We had the one blunder in the league, but finishing strong here.”

Tuesday’s meeting was a tale of two halves, as McDonald wrangled control of the game away from Campbell early on. The Blue Devils took a 23-19 lead into the second quarter, which proved even more in favor of the road team.

After weathering a hot start to the quarter by Campbell, McDonald scored eight unanswered points and finished the half on a 9-3 run to take an 42-31 advantage into the break.

From there, Campbell took control.

The Red Devils scored 12 of the first 15 points in the third quarter, and despite a couple of 3-pointers by McDonald, Campbell held the Blue Devils to just seven points in the third.

“They hit some shots, and they sped us up, they really did,” McDonald coach James Franceschelli said. “We were just talking about it; they sped us up, but we needed to, once we got it across halfcourt, we needed to slow back down. And we never really got into that position. I don’t think we could have played a better first half, and I don’t think we could have played a worse second half.”

The fourth, which Campbell entered trailing by two points, proved to be even worse for the McDonald offense. The Blue Devils could only muster five points in the final period, but despite their woes, they still had a chance to escape Campbell with a win in the final minute of the game.

After a Drew Zajack field goal halfway into the fourth, pulling McDonald back within two points, both teams went more than three minutes without scoring.

The Blue Devils had the ball with under 45 seconds to play, but a Chris Ragazzine triple missed the mark, and Campbell’s Josue “Sway” Rodriguez subsequently put the Red Devils ahead by two possessions at the free-throw line.

Any chance at a McDonald comeback ultimately came to an end moments later when another 3-point attempt clanged off of the rim and Campbell made an additional free throw at the other end.

Jared Colon led all scorers with 22 points Tuesday, while Zajack scored a McDonald-best 14.

“Such a bad defensive first half for us. And as bad as that first half was defensively, it was that much better defensively in the second half,” Canterino said. “These guys really just stepped it up and buckled down and defended.”

Tuesday’s win ensures Campbell, which entered the game with a one-game lead on McDonald in the MVAC Scarlet standings, will finish at least one game ahead of McDonald regardless of the results of the teams’ final league games.

McDonald (15-6, 12-3) will try to rebound from the loss — its first since a Jan. 9 defeat vs. Campbell — against Lowellville in its regular-season finale. The Blue Devils will host the Rockets on Friday before shifting focus to a home playoff matchup with Mapleton next Friday.

“Our ultimate goal was to win a district championship, so we got to get back to work tomorrow and prepare for that,” Franceschelli said.

Campbell (17-4, 14-1) finishes its season at Sebring on Friday. The Red Devils host Southern next Friday in their postseason opener.