LOWELLVILLE Gym gets sad farewell as Bears drop Rockets
Ryan Dowling led Leetonia with 18 points in the 40-34 victory.
By JOHN BUTERA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
LOWELLVILLE -- On a night when turnovers were more prevalent than baskets, the Leetonia High basketball team got 18 points from Ryan Dowling to defeat Lowellville, 40-34, in the final game at Paul V. Johnson Gymnasium.
Dowling, who keyed an 11-0 run late in the third quarter, thought back to when the Bears closed their gymnasium last season.
"We used that as an example," Dowling said. "Lisbon came in to our gym for our last game and they beat us. What better way to get a piece of that back?
"Lowellville never gave up, though, and I know how they feel," Dowling said.
Sloppy half
Lowellville took the early lead, 8-4, but Leetonia managed to tie the game at the end of the quarter behind two field goals from Dowling.
The Rockets held Leetonia without a field goal over the final 5:17 of the second quarter to take a 16-14 halftime lead.
By halftime, the Bears had the same number of turnovers as points.
But Lowellville, which shot 4 of 12 in that second period, struggled offensively in the third period, going 3 for 13 with seven turnovers.
The Rockets built the final lead in their gymnasium when Andrew Mamula scored to make it 23-18 with 4:53 left.
That would be the last Lowellville basket of the quarter.
Pulling away
Leetonia finished with an 11-0 run, getting baskets from three different players -- a 3-pointer by Drew Mason, three baskets from Dowling and a steal and layup by Fred Gray.
Early in the fourth, Lowellville cut the gap to one (29-28), but the Bears went on a 9-0 run to put the game away with 2:55 left.
Gray added eight points and Drew Mason had seven for Leetonia (2-5), which has won two straight.
"We were worried that Lowellville would be emotionally ready for this game and we needed to get off to a good start," Leetonia coach Guy Costello said. "Then when they went up by five I was really concerned, but we were able to stay in the context of doing things we wanted to do and fortunately, things went our way."
Mamula and Andy Peterson each had eight points for Lowellville (0-7).
The teams combined for 46 turnovers compared to 43 baskets.