Slow start doesn’t hurt Leetonia

By Pete Mollica

The Bears toppled Heritage Christian, but Southern lost to East Canton in Div. IV.

STRUTHERS — Leetonia got off to a slow start Monday night in the boys Division IV sectional tournament, but once the Bears got going they were tough to stop.

Leetonia (11-10) took control of the game in the second quarter then outlasted Heritage Christian the rest of the way to post a 48-40 victory in the tournament opener.

East Canton, on the other hand, built an early lead against Southern and were never headed in a 66-54 victory in the nightcap.

“We got off to a very slow start tonight, first game jitters and all that, but I knew it would happen and we didn’t panic and came back and played hard the rest of the night,” said Leetonia coach Vince Nittoli.

Other than the slow start the only thing that the Bears had trouble with was making free throws as they finished 9-of-19 on the night and just 3-of-11 over the final 2:28 of the contest.

“It’s been a problem, but only on the road this year,” Nittoli said. “We shoot very well at home and we even practiced here and shot a lot of free throws, but we still didn’t make enough tonight.”

Senior Josh Selway paced the Bears with a game-high 16 points, while 6-foot-5 senior Jake McNally added 10 points and 14 rebounds.

“We had a lot of guys playing in their first tournament game and they were nervous, but once we got going everything started to click,” said Selway.

Heritage Christian (8-13) jumped out to a 14-8 first quarter lead, including a pair of 3-point goals by Josh Davidson, but the Bears came right back with a solid second quarter, outscoring the Conquerors 14-4 for a 22-18 halftime lead.

Heritage quickly tied up the contest to open the second half on two straight baskets by Kenneth Hill, who led the Conquerors with 14 points.

Selway then scored twice and Michael Dowling hit a 3-pointer and the Bears were back on top 35-28 after three quarters.

Leetonia ran off the first seven points in the final quarter, four of them by Cody Stokes and built their biggest lead, 44-31, with 3:24 remaining on another Stokes bucket.

Even though the Bears were missing their free throws at the end Heritage didn’t get the lead under 10 points until a final basket by Josh Moody in the closing seconds.

Leetonia will face second seeded Youngstown Christian in a sectional final on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

East Canton 66, Southern 54

East Canton jumped out to a 10-0 lead and the Indians were never able to recover.

The Hornets (12-9), who were led by Josh Smith’s 22 points and 19 more by Brandon Slater, never trailed in the contest although the Indians stayed within striking distance well into the final quarter.

“We didn’t play very well tonight,” said Southern coach George Whittaker. “But, like I told our kids in the fourth quarter we’re playing poorly but we’re still in the game, but we just didn’t finish when we needed to.”

Ethan Blatch and Eric Baker each had 12 points to lead the Indians (9-12).

East Canton coach Chad Spurgeon was happy with his team’s opening win.

“We’re a very young team,” he said. “We start three juniors, a sophomore and a freshman and for most of them it was their first tournament game.”

The Hornets advanced to play No. 3 seed Columbiana in a sectional final on Friday at 6 p.m.

mollica@vindy.com