Morning Journal/Matt Morrison Heartland’s Jake Walker drives around Lisbon’s Tate Wallen on Tuesday.

COLUMBIANA– Heartland Christian may now be in the conversation for the best small school boys basketball team in Columbiana County.

The Lions’ run-fast offensive and defense was too much for Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference leader Lisbon as the Lions posted a 70-64 win on Tuesday, handing the Blue Devils their first loss of the season against a team in Ohio.

“I think we are just out there trying to compete,” Heartland coach Josh Scott said. “I don’t really want to take on that label (as the best in the county) because I think both Columbiana and Lisbon are really solid programs and I happy to have games were they were both really close and we were able to pull it out.”

The Lions are 5-1 against EOAC teams with wins over the top two teams, Lisbon and Columbiana.

Heartland improves to 12-5 on the regular season, while Lisbon falls to 15-3. The Devils’ other two losses came at a tournament in Florida with out-of-state teams.

The Lions have seen plenty of competition throughout the season and has faired well against it.

“Badger was really good,” Scott said. “Columbiana and Lisbon were really huge games for us. You just go down the list and start listing out some of these teams that we have played and our guys have been up to that challenge which is great, but the schedule has been tough.”

The big moment was when the Lions saw themselves down 56-47 with 7:24 remaining in the game then went on a 23-6 run that included game changing three-pointers from Jake Walker at the 4:04 mark in the fourth quarter that tied the game at 62 and then at the 2:25 mark that gave the Lions a 65-62 lead — the first advantage for the Lions since the the 2:09 mark in the second quarter.

“I shot well in the first half and then (Lisbon) started to face guard me a little bit and I got in my head and got a little cold,” Walker said. “I saw we were down three and I was open and I thought that I just have to hit this.”

“We tried to make a couple of adjustments just to make it hard on (Trevor) Siefke because he is a great player,” Scott said. “(Lisbon) was doing such a great job all game long, so we were trying a few different things and finally found something that was working and we were able to roll with it and get hot.”

Will Morgan had a couple of three-pointers, including one at the 6:52 mark in the fourth quarter that started the big run that lead the Lions to victory.

Walker led the Lions with 23 points including six three-pointers, while Collin Kalaher added 15 points. Morgan finished with 14 points. Brody Conaway had 13 points.

Lisbon controlled most of the second quarter including a 14-7 run that gave it a 49-38 lead with 1:55 left in the third quarter, but exhaustion and big time possessions from the Lions made the lead disappear.

You have a couple of bad possessions and (Heartland) made a couple of threes,” Lisbon coach Chris Huckshold said. “It’s a snowball affect.”

Lisbon has held a tight one game lead over Columbiana for the Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference and that has put pressure on the Blue Devils.

“When we are focused on league games, games like these become trap games,” Huckshold said. “We are just gonna get back in the gym tomorrow and improve on the things that we didn’t do good tonight.”

Trevor Siefke led the Blue Devils with 19 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. Hunter Dailey had 18 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks. Tate Wallen had four points and seven assists.

Heartland Christian won the jayvee game 63-52.

Jack Morgan led the Lions with 15 points.

Baline Barnes had 22 points for the Blue Devils.

Heartland Christian will be at Valley Christian on Friday, while Lisbon will be at United on Friday.

LI: 12-23-19-10–64

HC: 15-16-14-25–70

LISBON SCORING: Logan Stauffer 3-0-9, Luke Kraft 1-0-2, Trevor Siefke 9-0-19, Hunter Dailey 9-0-18, Austin Dailey 3-0-6, Alex Schreffler 2-0-6. TEAM SCORING: 29, 0-2: 64

HEARTLAND CHRISTIAN SCORING: Isaiah Matthews 0-0-0, Collin Kalaher 5-3-15, Jake Walker 8-1-23, Tyler Rarick 1-0-2, Will Morgan 6-0-14, Johnny Meyer 1-0-2, Seth Walker 1-0-2, Kaden Stryffeler 0-0-0, Brody Conaway 5-0-13. TEAM SCORING: 27, 4-6: 70.

Three-point goals: Lisbon 6 (Stauffer 3, Schreffler 2, Siefke), Heartland Christian 12 (J. Walker 6, Conaway 3, Morgan 2, Kalaher).