Stingy South Range defense clamps down on Clippers

March 2, 2019 at 12:05a.m.

By ERIC FORTUNE

BEAVER TOWNSHIP

South Range harassed Columbiana into three single-digit quarters to come away with its third straight tournament win over the Clippers, this time a 52-32 victory in a Division III sectional final Friday night.

“That defense is something we haven’t seen all season,” Columbiana head coach Todd Johnson said. “Their length, their athleticism, the way they pressure up — you try to coach them up as much as you can, but when it’s on the floor it’s a little bit different. They do a phenomenal job with ball pressure. It’s a tough man-to-man defense to go against.”

The Raiders held the Clippers (13-11) to 4-of-18 shooting in the first half while getting all five starters into the scorebook. Chris Brooks led the Raiders (17-6) with 15 points and Jaxon Anderson added 10.

“They have four guys averaging double figures,” South Range coach John Cullen said. “You have to try and make them beat you with something other than what they normally beat you with. We tried to take them out of the game. We didn’t mix it up too much tonight. We played a little bit of zone. You can’t leave those guys open, because if they get their confidence, they can shoot you out of the gym.”

South Range will meet Canton Central Catholic in a district semifinal at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Salem High School.

Trailing 25-12 going into the second half, the Clippers found some success when Sean Whitehead scored nine of his 14 points in the third quarter.

“We tried to run a couple of different offenses,” Johnson said. “We tried some back screens to create more ball space as best we could. We wanted to have Hunter Zenter penetrate a bit more. We found a little bit of opening, not much, but a little bit. We made a little bit of a run to make it interesting.”

Columbiana outscored the Raiders 13-12 in the quarter to make 37-25 heading into the final quarter.

That success didn’t carry over into the fourth quarter as the Raiders outscored the Clippers 15-7 limiting the Columbiana to 3-of-13 shooting.

“Zenter is a good point guard,” Cullen said. “He hurts a lot of people. We trapped him on all the ball screens. We took him out of his normal game.”

The Clippers overall finished 26 points below their scoring average on the season.

“Coach really emphasizes defense and I think we really pride ourselves on that,” Brooks said. “We can really play against any of the best teams.”