East Liverpool’s Izaiha Browning dribbles between Edison’s Anthony Sincroppi (right) and Alec McBane on Monday night.

EAST LIVERPOOL — The East Liverpool Potters’ Buckeye 8 title dreams have come to a halt as they dropped a 74-66 to Edison on Monday night.

Indian Creek clinches the Buckeye 8 North Division with a 6-1 record while the Potters drop to 4-2 in Buckeye 8 North play.

“We were in the driver’s seat to get to the Buckeye 8 championship,” East Liverpool coach Nate Conley said. “We came out flat tonight. I know we missing are point guard (Tre Jackson) but one guy doesn’t make that much of a difference. We need to buckle down and play defense.”

The Potters lost its third game in four days to drop to 7-7 on the season. Jackson has missed three straight games due to illness.

The Wildcats improve to 4-11 overall.

“We played zero defense tonight,” Conley said. “The past two games we’ve only cared about offense and we are not good enough to do that. That’s on me as a coach I have to get them prepared.”

Edison ran the lead to to 10 at 59-49, its biggest of the game, at the end of the third quarter with a buzzer beater three-point shot from Anthony Sinicroppi.

“Earlier in the season we were causing a lot of problems on the defensive side,” Conley said. “Now we are deciding to be cute on defense and I don’t like it. I like getting after it and we are not doing that right now.”

The Potters would bring the game within four in the final frame when Brennan O’Hara drove in for a layup to make the score 70-66 with two minutes remaining.

The Wildcats would take care of the ball and cause the Potters to foul late.

Wildcat free throw shooters were 4 for 4 in the final minute of the game.

The Potters had a 37-35 lead at halftime but were outscored 39-29 in the second half.

East Liverpool’s biggest lead was when they went on a 11-0 run to start the second quarter and took a 26-19 lead.

“Anytime you come to East Liverpool you know it’s going to be a tough place to play,” Edison coach Nate Moses said. “I’m proud of the kids and tell them we are better than our record indicates.

“We can play with teams and I hope that they saw what happened tonight. We can have a turnaround this season.”

Edison was led by Connor Hyndman with 24 points.

“Our game plan was to get the ball inside all game,” Moses said. “We made our free throws and took care of the ball down the stretch. We came out with a big win tonight.”

Edison only had 13 turnovers and outrebounded East Liverpool 30-18.

“Anytime you limit your turnovers you are going to have a good night,” Moses said. “I think last time we played them we had close to 40 turnovers and we played under control tonight.”

East Liverpool beat Edison 104-74 in the first matchup of the season.

“Our defensive game plan was to guard (Gabe Roach) close because he’s one heck of a player,” Moses said. “In the second half we adjusted to stop them and made the other guys have to beat us.”

Roach finished the night with 18 points.

The Potters leading scorer was Brennan O’Hara with 23 points, four rebounds and two blocks.

“Brennan is becoming a complete ball player,” Conley said. “He played a phenomenal night offensively and brings it every night defensively.”

“People need to get on board with that. We need someone to step up and be a leader.”

Also for Edison, Isaac Schmitz had 16 points and Alec McBane had 11 points.

The Potters will play their fourth game in five days tonight when they travel to Salem.

“Another quick turnaround,” Conley said. “They have probably the best player in the county with Mitch Davidson and a high-scoring offense. We got 24 hours to fix it and get ready for Salem. If not, Salem is going to blow us out of the gym.”

Edison will host Toronto on Friday.

Game notes

¯ This game was a makeup for the originally scheduled for Jan. 12 that was postponed due to the weather.

¯ After tonight’s game, the Potters are looking at another stretch of four games in six days. (Thursday at Beaver, Saturday hosting Buckeye 8 championships, Monday hosting Brooke, Tuesday hosting Harrison Central)

“If there is one downfall about playing so many games it’s that there is no time for practice,” Conley said. “The only adjustments you can make are on a dry erase board.”

¯ The Buckeye 8 championship games will be played Saturday at East Liverpool. The pairings are slated to be released on Friday after the Potters play at Beaver Local on Thursday night.

¯ In jayvee action, East Liverpool won 64-27.

For East Liverpool, Gannon Irvine had 19 points and Cam Beverly had 14 points.

For Edison, Brandon Boyd had 14 points.

EDISON: 15-20-24-15–74

EAST LIVERPOOL: 19-18-12-17–66

EDISON: Anthony Sinicroppi 3-0-8, Dakota Clifton 0-0-0, Connor Hyndman 9-4-24, Isaac Schmitz 6-2-16, Brennan Scott 0-0-0, Andrew Kinney 1-3-5, Alex Mayle 0-0-0, Alec McBane 4-3-11 , Andrew Pugh 3-0-8, Zac Easter 1-0-2 .TEAM TOTALS: 27, 12-16:74

EAST LIVERPOOL SCORING: Brennan O’Hara 8-6-23, Gabe Roach 8-1-18, Logan Torma 1-0-3, Peyton Reed 4-3-13, Izaiha Browning 1-0-2, Jalen Moman 0-0-0, Nick Woodyard 3-1-7, Sabaan Razi 0-0-0. TEAM TOTALS: 25, 11-15:66

Three-point goals: Edison 8 (Sinicroppi 2, Hyndman 2, Scmitz 2, Pugh 2), East Liverpool 5 (Reed 2, Roach, O’Hara, Torma).