Strong start is for the ’Dogs

By Tom Williams

East Palestine dropped Crestview into an early hole to win and keep loop lead.

COLUMBIANA — After last Friday’s game with United was postponed by bad weather, the first-place East Palestine High basketball team was anxious to see if its scoring touch was intact.

There was little need to worry. Three baskets by junior wing Austin Cope and a 3-pointer by Chad Campagna in the first 100 seconds of Tuesday’s game put the Bulldogs ahead 10-0 on Crestview’s court.

East Palestine closed the first quarter with an 11-point lead and never lost its double-digit edge as the Bulldogs raced to a 64-50 victory to keep them atop the Inter Tri-County League Tier One standings.

“They shot it extremely well,” Crestview coach Rick Gates said of the Bulldogs (8-2, 5-0). “Their wing players just did a great job of hitting [3-pointers.]

“They continued that most of the game no matter what we tried to do defensively to counter their offense,” Gates said. “They are a good, balanced team.”

Concern about the Bulldogs play underneath the basket was a factor.

“We knew that [Ben] Gysin was strong inside so we were packing it in a little bit worrying about him,” Gates said. “They’ve had solid play also from [Matt] Greene and [Braxton] Mascher inside. So the guards got some looks and they nailed them.”

In the opening quarter, Brandenn Keylor hit two of his four 3-pointers while Cope scored 10 points.

East Palestine coach Tom Bingham described Cope as the Bulldogs’ “glue. He does a little bit of everything. He played a nice defensive game, too.”

Cope said hitting 3-pointers early “fires us up. It steps up the intensity and we feed off that.”

Bingham called the fast start “extremely helpful. We’ve had nights on the other end of that where we couldn’t throw it in the ocean.”

Cope agreed.

“Like every, team we’ve had our [off] nights,” the junior said. “When we’re not hitting, we’ve got to try and pound it inside so we can get better shots. And when we’ve get out to a big lead, we’ve got to slow it down so we don’t give it away like we’ve done this year. Coach gets on us for that.”

Cope led the Bulldogs with 18 points, followed by Gysin with 13, Keylor with 12 and Campagna with 10. Greene pulled down seven and Mascher six of the Bulldogs’ 23 rebounds.

“Overall, everybody stepped up,” Bingham said. “When Gysin got in foul trouble early, everybody contributed on the offensive end.

“We were a little concerned about the weather forecast [Tuesday] — we really wanted to play after a week off,” Bingham said.”

Cope said the Bulldogs’ offense is triggered by the defensive alignment they face.

“We weren’t sure what they were going to do at first so we just had to be patient to look what [defense] they were in and then adapt,” Cope said.

Senior post player Jakob Leon led the Rebels with 13 points, four rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot. David Drinnon contributed 10 points and seven rebounds.

Cope sensed the Rebels (5-6, 2-4) became frustrated as the lead grew.

“When any team comes out as hot as we did, there is going to be some frustration,” Cope said. “They are capable, they have a lot of 3-point shooters, they are a good team.”

After a 4-1 start, the Rebels have lost five out of six games. Several were close, including a one-point loss to Leetonia, an overtime loss to Mineral Ridge and a two-point defeat at Columbiana.

“In all of those games, we had chances to win,” Gates said. “It’s frustrating for the kids knowing their record could be so much better [but] we’re going to keep battling.”

williams@vindy.com.