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E. Palestine rolls over Columbiana; United is ousted
By Lowell spencer
SALEM
The East Palestine High boys basketball team wasted little time ousting Columbiana from the Division III tournament.
They Bulldogs jumped on the Clippers at the opening tip-off and never let up in route to Monday’s 61-33 victory. The win sets up a another match between the Bulldogs and league rival South Range on Wednesday night.
In the other game, Waterloo defeated United, 58-45.
“It was a nice way to start it,” Bulldogs senior Zac Brockman said about the opening game of the tournament. “Columbiana is a good team, but beating them by that big of a margin definitely helps us out.”
The Bulldogs hit an almost perfect 9 of 10 shots from the floor to start the game and take an overwhelming 23-3 lead at the end of the first period.
“We played a very good first quarter again, we executed,” Bulldogs coach Tom Bingham said. “We’re playing our best basketball of the year right now.”
The Bulldogs stretched the advantage to 25 with a 30-5 lead midway through the second quarter. The lead was 33-15 at halftime.
“Jake DiCello played an outstanding floor game for us,” Bingham said. “I mean he just understood the situation and even though he didn’t score a lot I felt he played an outstanding game.”
Brockman led the Bulldogs with 18 points and 10 rebounds. DiCello added 12 points and 10 assists.
“The guys look at me to what play to run, kind of a leadership role,” DiCello said. “Coach really puts a lot of pressure on me with that, but it’s a good role for me. I like it.”
Austen Reiser had 11 points with 10 rebounds, and Cody Stewart contributed11 points.
The Clippers were led by DeJong with 10 points.
“The record doesn’t really indicate how hard these kids work,” Clippers coach Jason Baker said. “We have everybody coming back next year, and it’s exciting to know that.”
About South Range, Bingham said, “We’re gonna have to play very well to win. We played two good games with them. They are very good.
In the Waterloo-United game, Brett Albright led the Eagles with 21 points.
The Vikings took advantage of their size by crashing the offensive boards to power their way to a 15-point lead near halftime
“It’s been a long year,” United coach Eric Mowery said. “We’re a very young, inexperienced team. For most of these guys, this is their first tournament game.”