Columbiana’s balance too much for Palestine

Josh Weikart scored 21 points to lead the Clippers, 74-63.

By ERIC HAMILTON

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

COLUMBIANA — Expecting East Palestine’s defensive plan to focus on stopping Joe and Kevin Blinsky, Columbiana boys basketball coach Eric Whitmer had been telling forward Josh Weikart all week to be ready to shoot the ball Friday.

The senior took the advice to heart, as the Bulldogs used a triangle-and-two defense on the Blinskys and Weikart made them pay with a team-high 21 points to spark the Clippers to a 74-63 victory at the newly-dedicated Richard Berryman Gymnasium.

Weikart hit three of his first four shots — including two 3-pointers — as Columbiana built an early 15-5 advantage. He finished 8-of-18 from the field.

“I told Josh he’d get more opportunities tonight because teams are really turning their attention to Joe and Kevin,” said Whitmer. “I’m really pleased with how Josh responded tonight and shot with confidence. There were a lot of holes out there tonight for him and he found them.

“And Ryan Williams really gave us a lift on the boards. He’s only 5-10, but he has to be one of the top rebounders in this area. We’ve worked really hard on our pressure defense and the kids have really put in the work.”

Weikart’s 21 points led a balanced Columbiana attack that included four players in double figures. Joe Blinsky added 19 points, Kevin Blinsky scored 12 and Andrew Tirpak chipped in with 11.

The Clippers’ trapping defense forced 20 East Palestine turnovers and enabled Columbiana to attempt 28 more field goals in the contest.

“That’s their style and we knew it would be an up and down kind of a game,” said East Palestine coach Tom Bingham. “We made some mistakes in that style of game, but we expected that. We had some good looks, but we missed some free throws and Columbiana’s experience paid off tonight.”

After falling behind by double digits early, East Palestine stayed in the game by hitting free throws. The Bulldogs outscored Columbiana 21-14 at the stripe, but converted six fewer field goals.

The Bulldogs trimmed Columbiana’s advantage to 39-35 on a pair of JC Bollinger charity tosses with 6:40 left in the third period.

But the Clippers (8-0, 6-0 ITCL Tier 1) engineered an 11-2 run over the next two minutes to stretch the deficit to 50-37.

EP (3-3, 2-3) got no closer than nine points in the four quarter, despite the efforts of sophomore Ben Gysin, who scored a game-high 25 points for the Bulldogs.

“We looked pretty good tonight, but the foul situation made things a little disjointed and it turned into a free throw contest,” said Whitmer. “We’ve been threw a lot of scenarios already this year with this being only our third home game and we know we need to continue to get better.”