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Columbiana survives furious Sebring rally
Moschella wins in his debut as a boys coach
By Tom Williams
COLUMBIANA
The Ron Moschella boys basketball era began with a sprint when Columbiana raced out to a 27-point halftime lead Friday night against Sebring.
But in the second half, the Trojans brought the party to an abrupt halt by slicing the Clippers’ lead to two points in the final minute.
Despite Sebring’s tremendous comeback, Columbiana hung on to win, 54-51. The game wasn’t settled until Parker Ketler’s three-quarter court attempt at the buzzer fell just short of the rim.
It was quite a debut for the emotionally expressive Moschella, who is coaching the Clippers’ boys and girls teams this season after compiling more than 600 victories as a girls head coach at Boardman and Columbiana.
“It’s better than what I hoped it would be,” Moschella said. “We have great kids and they work their butts off, both teams. What more could you ask for as a coach if they’re going to play as hard as they can for their school and their parents?
“Hopefully, we clean things up.”
Moschella and his staff have plenty to focus on after the Trojans outscored the Clippers, 39-15 in the second half.
“I’m proud of them for the first half, not proud of them for the second half,” Moschella said. “It was a tale of two halves.”
The Clippers did little wrong early as they jumped out to a 23-4 lead. Their biggest mistake of the first half came when Dalton Miller picked up his third foul early in the second quarter and remained in the game.
When Miller took his fourth foul a few minutes later, an animated conversation between the coaches ensued. Despite Miller’s absence, the Clippers’ defensive pressure continued to hound the Trojans, forcing 16 turnovers in the first half.
Sebring head coach Josh Scott said “effort and focus” led to the second-half turnaround.
“We knew it was going to be ugly early on because we could tell [our] guys had jitters,” Scott said. “We were on the road in a tough place to play — we call this place ‘The Mosch Pit.’
“They got us out of our rhythm,” Scott said. “Once we decided to go small ball, we decided to get after it and make something happen.”
The plan worked, especially in the fourth quarter when the Trojans outscored the Clippers, 23-6.
At halftime, Moschella warned his players.
“I told them I guarantee you they are going to make a run,” Moschella said. “I want to see how our character is going to handle it.
“Aaaannnnnnnd we didn’t.”
Robbie Rouse scored 12 of his 13 points down the stretch.
“Sebring had a nice plan — put a lot of pressure on us,” Moschella said. “Sometimes teams that put pressure don’t like pressure. We like to put pressure and we didn’t handle theirs well.”
Sebring’s surge brought out the full range of Moschella’s emotions as he encouraged, cajoled and badgered his troops.
“It’s a great experience, he has our back,” senior guard Drew Makosky said of Moschella said. “Even though he’s screaming, he’s helping us. He’s not trying to hurt us.
“We just need to learn how to finish,” Makosky said.
Cooper Smith led the Clippers with 12 points while Makosky and Berdette Baker each had 10.
“It wasn’t a loss and hopefully [we] learn from it,” Moschella said.
Andrew Weingart scored 10 points and Ketler nine for the Trojans.