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Leetonia ‘bumps’ Campbell in finale
CAMPBELL
Leetonia coach Jeff Hammond’s chest-bump with 6-foot-6 Zach Pugh in front of the Bears’ bench following the final horn was an outward sign of delight for a team that had won just five games when it arrived at Campbell’s gym Friday night.
A strong first half enabled Leetonia to establish a foothold before withstanding Campbell’s stepped-up pressure in the final 16 minutes to escape with a 54-45 victory in the regular-season finale for both teams.
“It’s been a long season and he’s been with us four years, so it’s really satisfying because of the hard work we put in,” coach Hammond said of his interaction with Pugh following the game in which Leetonia led nearly start to finish. “It was a big win for us.”
One stark statistic in the game between teams that seldom play each other was free-throw attempts.
The Bears finished 16 of 40 while Campbell was 4 of 5.
“I’m not going to apologize, I guess, because we were in situations and got to the line and obviously missed quite a few, but we made enough to hold on to win,” Hammond, a second-year head coach, said.
He said it was a long fourth quarter.
“We had to hold them off in the last five minutes and withstand their charge when they came after us.”
Leetonia (6-16), which plays Valley Christian on Tuesday in the Division IV Struthers tournament, led by as many as 16 points at 43-27 before Campbell closed the gap to 48-39 with the help of two 3-point goals by Darion Jones.
“We made a commitment to finish the season strong and hard and give it everything we had,” Hammond said. “This definitely gives us confidence going into Tuesday’s game.”
Pugh is one of his team’s six seniors. Leetonia’s other five victories include two wins over Heartland Christian and single wins over Southern, Crestview and Mineral Ridge.
Campbell closed the regular season with a 3-19 record.
“We just missed easy shots and took a couple bad shots and they kept getting to the bucket and we didn’t do a very good job defensively,” first-year Campbell coach Nick Canterino said.
Roman Ferry and Danny McCool were Leetonia’s top scorers with 15 and 14 points, respectively, while Eli McKaskil’s seven points led the Red Devils, who drew a first-round bye in the Division III Salem tournament. Campbell doesn’t play again until March 3.