Campbell stays in control to advance

By Chuck Housteau

The Red Devils knocked off Lisbon and will face St. Thomas Aquinas next.

SALEM — Campbell Memorial cruised into district play as expected with a 69-38 win over Lisbon in the Division III boys basketball sectional tournament at Salem High School on Friday.

The top-seeded Red Devils (16-5)will take on St. Thomas Aquinas in a district semifinal game on Tuesday at 8 p.m. after the Knights took down United, 72-53, in the opening game Friday night.

In the other district semifinal contest, East Palestine will play Waterloo 6:30 p.m.

“It will be a great district tournament,” said Campbell coach Brian Danilov. “I have great respect for all the coaching staffs of the teams that we will have to face next week here at Salem.

“This place has such great atmosphere for high school basketball. It’s going to be a tough tournament.”

Things were tough for the two teams, Lisbon and United, from the Inter Tri-County league right from the start in games that were decided by halftime.

Campbell got off to a somewhat slow start as the Blue Devils (5-17), who upset South Range on Tuesday, gave the Red Devils an early challenge.

“They were coming off a big win and we knew they would play us tough,” said Danilov who saw his team only hold a slim 14-11 lead after the first period.

“It seemed like it took us a little while to get into our rhythm,” Danilov said. “Once we started sharing the basketball we seemed to settle into our game.”

The Devils pressured Lisbon into 10 second-period turnovers and started to knock down shots after making just 6-of-16 shots in the first period.

Nate Hodge, who led Campbell with 16 points, scored seven points in the second quarter as the Devils went on a 16-0 run to turn a 14-13 lead into a 30-13 advantage.

Jerah’me Williams was also a factor in the second quarter run as he knocked down seven of his 13 points in the period.

“We didn’t want to play faster than the game,” Danilov said of his team’s ability to take control of the contest. “I thought we played fast but we want to play under control and I think that we did that.”

Campbell continued to pull away in the second half to end Lisbon’s season.

Todd Padurean led the Blue Devils with 14 points while William Bowyer added six points and six rebounds.

Dorian Jones came off the bench for Campbell and scored 12 points and grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.

In the opening contest, St. Thomas Aquinas (8-13) showed that they will be a tough opponent in the district as they easily took care of United.

“[St. Thomas] is a quality team and they got off to a good start against us,” said United coach Mike Ward. “They shot the ball very well and every time we made a run at them they hit a big shot.”

Despite falling behind early in the game, United (12-9) did manage to hang around and make things interesting.

The Knights opened up leads of 22-11 after the first quarter and 38-25 at the break but United tried to make several runs.

The Eagles did get close as six points, 51-45, on a basket by Zack Lease, but St. Thomas went on a 13-0 run to put the game away.

United was led by Jeremy Walker who had 15 points and 13 rebounds. Lease and Zack Taylor each chipped in with 13 points.

Ryan Snyder led the Knights with 22 points.