Seeds E. Palestine, Columbiana fall

By GEORGE WELKER
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
SALEM -- In two boys basketball games that came down to the wire, upset-minded underdogs ruled the Salem Division III sectional finals Friday.
Lisbon (13-9) knocked off No. 4 seed East Palestine, 59-54, in a battle of Tri-County League foes, and Waterloo (9-12) upended Columbiana, 59-51, leaving top-seeded Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary and No. 2 Springfield as the only seeded teams left in the tournament. The winners took opposite paths.
Lisbon won a seesaw battle with East Palestine (14-7), while Waterloo had to hang on as the Clippers (15-6) climbed out of a 17-point hole to make things interesting.
Clippers struggle: Trailing 26-17 at halftime, Columbiana watched Waterloo open the third quarter with an 8-0 run for a 34-17 advantage at the 5:48 mark of the third.
About a minute later, Nate Shaw hit a pair of free throws that began a Clipper comeback that carried over to the fourth period.
Baskets by Greg Fitzsimmons, Andy Kimble and Ian Schmidt trimmed the lead to 35-25, then Fitzsimmons went to work again, scoring 11 of Columbiana's next 18 points to pull the Clippers to within 42-41.
His personal rally set up Schmidt, who hit a baseline jump shot with 6 minutes, 35 seconds left to give the Clippers their first lead, 43-42.
Columbiana went ahead 49-46, but the advantage didn't last as Waterloo's Jason Reedy hit consecutive baskets for a 51-49 advantage. After a Fitzsimmons basket on a feed from Gerrard Grimm, Joe Marcello hit a 3-pointer from the corner to put Waterloo ahead for good.
On the line: "They put it on the line and left it out there. That's all I ask, win or lose," Columbiana coach Jeff Hammond said of the Clippers valiant comeback.
His lament, however, was that the team was faced with playing catch-up.
"The intensity in the first half wasn't how we play and how we need to play," he said, explaining how the Clippers fell behind.
Columbiana was led by Fitzsimmons, who matched his career high of 26 points for the third time this season. He also grabbed eight of Columbiana's 30 rebounds before going down with an ankle sprain with three seconds left in the game. The extent of Fitzsimmons' injury wasn't known.
Lisbon 59, East Palestine 54: Tied 40-40 after three quarters, Lisbon watched guard Gregg Brown take over in the fourth.
Brown scored eight of his team-leading 15 points in the final period as the Blue Devils separated themselves from the Bulldogs. Brown opened the quarter with a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer to push Lisbon ahead 45-40 in the first 1:35 of the fourth quarter.
After that, the Blue Devils took care of business at the foul line, and never allowed East Palestine closer than two points (54-52 and 56-54).
"They took care of the basketball; they played smart basketball," Coach Joe Siefke said of his Blue Devils. "You can preach it as much as you want, you can drill it as much as you want, but they still have to go out and do it in pressure-packed situations."
East Palestine coach Jeff Berger said, "I think we ran out of gas a little bit in the fourth. It seems like most games we've lost this year, we've fallen off a little bit in the fourth quarter."