43
DYNAMIC DUO
By Greg Gulas
BEAVER TOWNSHIP
The South Range girls basketball team has played eight games this season. Each time, Morgan Czopur and Maddie Durkin have been the team’s top two scorers.
Their efforts Monday against Columbiana might be their best combined to date.
Durkin scored a season and career-best 31 points while Czopur added 22 as South Range (8-0) remained undefeated with a 73-53 win over the Clippers (5-2) in an Inter-Tri County clash at the Raiders’ gymnasium.
“I thought that they would double down low, or even up high on Morgan,” said Durkin, a sophomore. “We had a great rebounding effort tonight at both ends of the court and also passed the ball well as a team.
“Our fastbreak was working and that was big as well,” Durkin said. “For me, I just feel like I get a little more comfortable each time that we play.”
The Clippers were without the services of head coach Ron Moschella, who earlier in the day told school officials he intends to resign as head coach of the Columbiana boys team. Assistant coach Mark D’Eramo served as head coach in Moschella’s absence.
Last season, Moschella, who was the Boardman girls basketball head coach for 31 years before becoming Columbiana’s girls coach, took on both Columbiana coaching positions.
“Ron and I had a conversation this morning on what was best for himself, his family and both our boys and girls basketball programs,” Columbiana superintendent Don Mook said. “He just felt that it was in his best interest, and the interest of both programs right now to take a step back at this point.
“I will add however, that I have no resignation paper in hand just yet,” Mook said.
The Raiders, fresh off a 60-28 victory Saturday over Struthers in the Hope Classic, continued to scorch the nets offensively as they scored the game’s first 11 points and raced to a 19-2 advantage. Behind Durkin’s 11 points, South Range opened a 22-7 lead after the first eight minutes of play.
“The goal was to be ready for the 2-2-1 pressure that they throw at you so that you play into their chaos,” South Range head coach Tony Matisi said. “They played a box-and-one on Morgan in the first half, but you have to credit Maddie and the rest of the team because it was simply a great overall team effort.
“Maddie has been snowballing like crazy the last four games and it is so much fun to watch her just grabbing and understanding the game,” Matisi said. “I was disappointed in the fact that we committed 22 fouls and put them in the double bonus in the first quarter, but we will work on and hopefully correct that aspect of our game.”
Durkin and Czopur combined for 14 of the Raiders’ 15 second-quarter points. A stingy Raiders defense held Columbiana to two first-half buckets.
“We missed a couple shots that hurt us early,” D’Eramo said. “Rebounding also hurt us as we just couldn’t get any boards based on their size and our lack of positioning.”
Six points by Lynnie Ritter to start the second half, along with 17 points by Czopur and Durkin combined helped the Raiders increase their margin to 60-33.
“We haven’t played Columbiana since my freshman year, but they are an excellent team and we needed to play defense right from the start,” Czopur said. “That’s what gets us going as a team.
“We gave it everything we had at both ends of the court, worked the ball offensively and pushed the ball on our fast break opportunities.”
Kennedy Fullum had seven of her team-high 12 points in the final frame for Columbiana.