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Springfield surges to capture ITCL crown
By LOWELL SPENCER
NEW MIDDLETOWN
They were cutting down the nets in the Springfield High gymnasium Friday night following the Tigers’ hard-fought 46-28 win over East Palestine.
The victory clinched the Inter Tri-County League Tier One championship for the Tigers (16-3, 13-1).
Despite the margin of victory, it wasn’t until midway through the fourth quarter before the Tigers could shake loose of the Bulldogs.
“It feels great,” Tigers coach Eric Fender said. “It’s an amazing feeling.
“It’s a group of kids that work hard every day, and that’s nothing more that I can ask for,” Fender said.
The Tigers started the game with senior Ron Rogers, who led the Tigers with 12 points, hitting two 3-pointers to grab the early lead. However, the Bulldogs fought back as they controlled the boards to grab their first and only lead of the game at 13-12 with 6:35 remaining in the second period.
From there, the Tigers went on a 9-0 run on way to a 21-16 halftime lead.
“I thought our kids played extremely hard,” Bulldogs coach Tom . “We’re just struggling offensively right now. They play great defense, and we didn’t hit shots.”
The second half saw the Tigers start to pull away as they began to muscle up on the boards, grabbing a lot of the rebounds.
The Tigers pushed their advantage to 11-points with a 35-24 lead midway through the fourth period.
“They are a big team,” Fender said. “They are probably the biggest team in the ITCL, height wise.
“We knew we had to box out, and we didn’t do that very well in the first half, but we came back around in the second half, and took care of things a little better.”
East Palestine senior winger Jake DiCello took two consecutive drives inside for lay-ups to cut the score to 35-28. But those were the last points the Bulldogs scored.
“It feels real good,” Tigers senior Nick Russell said of the crown. “My brother was the last one to do it like him in his senior year.
“We have a great team, we all try hard, and it feels good to do it.”
“They won it the last three years, and they were hoping for a fourth, but we at least shut them out here and get the title ourselves,” Russell said.
Russell and Eoghan Bees scored 10 points apiece. Russell also was named the Homecoming King prior to tip-off.
DiCello, and Zak Brockman scored eight points to lead the Bulldogs. Cody Stewart made seven rebounds.
East Palestine played without junior Austen Reiser was out due to an illness.
“He hardly played Tuesday night against South Range,” Bingham said. “Offensively it hurts us a little bit, he’s a good shooter,” Bingham said.
“They earned it,” Bingham said. “They beat us, and they earned the league title, and I say congratulations to them. They are very deserving of winning the league.”