Heartland Christian fills it up heading into new year
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COLUMBIANA--The Heartland Christian's third annual Hoopin' into the New Year Tournament was success on different levels, including ticket sales.
The renewal of the Crestview-Columbiana rivalry filled the seats on the opening night of the tournament Thursday.
"We feel very confident that we hit full capacity around 850 people," Heartland Christian athletic director and coach Josh Scott said. "Tonight filled up pretty good as well, we had a little bit of a gap in the stands, but it was still pretty full."
"It has been a great tournament, Heartland does a good job with it," Columbiana coach Todd Johnson said. "We brought back Crestview last night and that's a good rivalry game."
Heartland Christian (5-3) put on heavy pressure on defense and the senior duo of Jake Walker and Will Morgan on offense gave the Lions the upper hand as they beat Columbiana 70-61 in the championship game Friday.
"We had a lot of guys step up, but when you your seniors to come in and give you 44 points between the two," Scott said. "They make big plays in big moments."
"We knew that they (Columbiana) were a good team coming in," Morgan said. "We knew we had to battle and string together some good possessions."
The first half of play was a back and forth battle, but Walker's 21 first-half points gave the Lions a 37-35 lead at halftime.
The Lions kept up the fast pace of play in the second half that ultimately let it take control.
"We have a lot of skill on this team and we do a lot of conditioning," Morgan said. "It's just how we have been playing since the summer, so it's really nothing new to us, getting up and down is what we do."
Walker finished with 29 points for the Lions, while Will Morgan added 15 points.
The second half of play mirrored the first half, but turnovers made a huge impact on the Clippers.
"They (Heartland Christian) do a great job at pressuring and we have,'t seen that type of pressure in our faces for 32 minutes," Johnson said. "We battle and we were there, but when you turn the ball over, I think our coaches had us at 25 times, you aren't going to win many ball games."
Columbiana was led by Devin Daugherty with 20 points and 13 rebounds, while Ian Less had 14 points and four assists. Alex Eusebio had six rebounds for the Clippers.
Early talks are already in session of all of the same teams to be in next year's tournament.
"Everyone seemed like they enjoyed themselves and all three coaches mentioned that would like to return," Scott said. "So that is something that we will run by all the other athletic directors from the other schools, but that is the intent to try and keep these (Heartland, Crestview, Columbiana, Crestview) four teams together."
Heartland Christian will kick of the new year as it will host Newton Falls on Tuesday, while Columbiana will host Mineral Ridge on Tuesday.
CO: 16-19-14-12--61
HC: 16-21-15-18--70
COLUMBIANA SCORING: Seth Struharik 2-1-5, Maddox Brown 3-1-12, Cooper Brown 0-0-0, Cameron Clancy 3-1-7, Ian Less 6-0-14, Devin Daugherty 8-4-20, Alex Eusebio 1-1-3. TEAM TOTALS: 23-62, 8-12: 61
HEARTLAND CHRISTIAN SCORING: Isaiah Matthews 0-0-0, Collin Kalaher 4-3-12, Jake Walker 9-6-29, Tyler Rarick 2-1-6, Will Morgan 6-0-15, Johnny Myer 0-0-0, Seth Walker 2-0-4, Jack Morgan 1-0-2, Kaden Stryffeler 0-0-0, Brody Conaway 1-0-2. TEAM TOTALS: 25, 10-15: 70.
Three-point goals: Columbiana 3 (Less 2, Brown), Heartland Christian 10 (J. Walker 5, Morgan 3, Rarick, Kalaher).
McDonald 57,
Crestview 47
COLUMBIANA -- Crestview's boys basketball team dropped the consolation game of the Heartland Hoopin' into the New Year Tournament with a 57-47 loss to McDonald on Friday.
Crestview is 2-6 and will be at Newton Falls on Friday.
The Rebels were led by Tanner Guy's 15 points and seven rebounds. Justin McKee added 14 points, seven rebounds and three blocks. Jameson English had seven assists.
MC: 25- 6- 9-17--57
CR: 7-12-16-12--47
MCDONALD SCORING: Wyatt Wolford 5-4-14, Casey Miller 1-1-3,, Brendan Emerick 0-1-1, Jonathan Black 0-0-0, Kyle Puckett 0-0-0, Brady Klockner 4-0-10, Joey Cappuzzello 7-2-22,Drew Zajack 2-0-5. TEAM TOTALS: 19, 8-19: 57.
CRESTVIEW SCORING: Jameson English 2-0-4, Tyler Savage 0-0-0, Jonathan Best 2-0-4, Tristan Milhoan 0-0-0, Tanner Guy 5-4-15, Evan Neff 5-0-10, Justin McKee 7-0-14. TEAM TOTALS: 21, 4-7: 47.
Three-point goals: McDonald 9 (Cappuzzello 6, Klockner 2, Zajack), Crestview 1 (Guy).