South Range finds a way

January 8, 2011 at 12:09a.m.

Baker leads shorthanded Raiders past E. Palestine

BEAVER TOWNSHIP

With two starters on the bench — one by accident, the other by incident — and the two-time defending league champions in town, the South Range High boys basketball team looked like it was headed for its second straight loss Friday night.

Instead, the Raiders used a small lineup to create some big headaches.

Sparked by a career-high 21 points from junior guard Jordan Baker, the Raiders snapped the Bulldogs’ 19-game league winning streak with a 66-60 victory in an Inter Tri-County League Tier One game.

“We were missing a couple players and coming off a loss and we knew we needed to win,” said Baker, whose previous career-high was 13 points. “I knew I needed to step up and be a scorer.

“We came together as a team and made it happen tonight.”

The Raiders were without their two tallest players — 6-foot-3 junior guard Brandon Pluchinsky (who will have surgery to repair a torn meniscus and won’t be back for about a month) and 6-7 junior forward Nathan Ruiz (who was suspended two games for violating team rules) and had no one who could match up one-on-one with East Palestine’s 6-8 senior center Corey Wright.

But they held their own, with senior forward Mike Thorpe giving up seven inches and still managing to come down with 10 rebounds.

“The thing I’m so proud of is not one person is bigger than the team,” said South Range coach Dave Purins, whose team was coming off a 56-55 loss to Crestview on Tuesday. “And that was so true tonight”

The game went back and forth through three quarters, with the Bulldogs (5-2, 3-1) taking a 50-48 lead in the opening minute of the fourth.

The Raiders responded with a 10-0 run —including five points from junior Isaac Schuster, who came up from junior varsity to add a spark off the bench — and never trailed again.

South Range made 8 of 14 free throws to close the game out, missing its final four after the result was no longer in doubt.

“We got beat,” Bulldogs coach Tom Bingham said. “We were trying to hang in the first half and a lot of our shots went in and out. I thought sooner or later they would drop.

“We had to foul at the end and they made their free throws.”

Wright had 16 points and 12 rebounds for East Palestine. Brett Foreman added 14 points and Adam Robb had 10.

“We’re still tied for first in the league, so it’s not the end of the world,” Bingham said. “Nobody is going to win the league after four league games.”

Thorpe had 16 points and Schuster finished with 13 for South Range.

“I told my players that this was a must-win,” Purins said. “We had to do everything we could to get it done.”