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Trumbull boys and Mahoning girls won Tuesday night
Oliver’s basket lifts Trumbull County boys in Bubba Classic
By Greg Gulas
HOWLAND
Chad Oliver’s layup with two seconds remaining helped lift the Trumbull County Boys All-Stars to a 75-73, come-from-behind victory over Mahoning County on Tuesday night in the Trumbull County Coaches Association 12th annual Frank Bubba Memorial Classic.
In the opening game at Howland High, Struthers’ Ashley Hefferon had 11 points and pulled down seven rebounds to pace Mahoning County to a 58-45 victory over their Trumbull County girls counterparts.
In boys action, the first five buckets by Trumbull came from beyond the arc as it built a 22-15 lead heading to the second period of play.
East High’s Taylor Johnson, who had 26 points on the night and was named team Most Valuable Player, scored 12 of his points in the period as Mahoning County cut the Trumbull lead to 44-41 at intermission.
Six points by Ursuline’s Preston Williams then helped Mahoning County close the third period on a 10-5 run to knot the score at 60 with eight minutes remaining.
A Williams bucket with 3:51 left then gave Mahoning County a 70-66 lead, but two buckets by Brookfield’s Jeremy Quinlan helped Trumbull County on a 7-3 run to knot the game at 73-all.
With two seconds remaining, McDonald’s Stephen Politano found a wide-open Oliver for the game-winning bucket.
Quinlan, who had 15 points and four rebounds on the night, was named Trumbull County’s MVP.
“Our coaches told us all night to play defense and if open, then shoot the ball. The last play wasn’t designed for anyone in particular, just who was open and Stephen [Politano] was able to find Chad [Oliver] for the game-winning bucket,” Quinlan said.
Johnson was happy just to be selected.
“This was entirely too much fun. I just wish we could do it all over again,” he said. “We had a nice chemistry despite the loss. It was great to be able to play on the same team with some of the players that you played against the past several seasons.”
The Mahoning County girls also got 12 points from Ursuline’s Sydney Beasley as they led from start to finish en-route to their 13-point victory.
“Everyone wanted to have some fun tonight and we did exactly that. We really worked well together and just seemed to find the open player at the right time all game,” Hefferon noted.
Champion’s Gabby Lamont earned team MVP honors for Trumbull County.
“It’s an all-star game and both teams were well-represented. It was disappointing to lose, but give Mahoning County credit because they really had a nice group of players,” Lamont said.
Howland’s Victoria Rappach, a freshman, canned 15 triples in 60 seconds to win the girl’s 3-point shooting contest while Oliver canned the same amount to win the boys title.
Quinlan, who also advanced to the slam dunk finals, came up just short to LaBrae’s Peyton Aldridge as the Vikings’ junior captured this year’s slam dunk championship.