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EAST LIVERPOOL -- East Liverpool pounded the boards and Zanesville at the same time.
The fourth-seeded Potter boys' basketball team repeated as a Division II sectional champion Saturday night after rolling over the 13th-seeded Blue Devils 79-59 in Potter Fieldhouse.
"Zanesville doesn't have a whole lot of wins, but with the schedule they play and their guards, they are good," said East Liverpool coach Nate Conley. "We had to be ready for tonight's game or it easily could have gone the other way, and I thought we came out and played pretty well."
"They (the Potters) are solid," said Zanesville coach Cedric Harris. "They get out in transition very well and their two guards made some big plays with some big threes."
The triumph sends the Potters (17-6) into a Division II district semifinal with sixth-seeded John Glenn (16-8) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Harrison Central High School. John Glenn advanced Saturday night with a 57-30 romp over 15th-seeded River View.
The Potters, who hit nine three-pointers in the game, displayed outstanding offensive balance against Zanesville. Preston Kerr led the winners with 15 points, while Preston Dawson had 14, Quintin Conrad 13 and Cohen Pease 11. Nate Birch and Malachi Reed had six points each, with two of Reed's points coming on a slam dunk.
Kerr feels the Potters, who reached the district title game last season, are better prepared for a tournament run this season due to playing a stronger regular-season schedule.
"We talked to (Coach Conley) last year about scheduling harder games and preparing us for stuff like this," said Kerr. "We came off a couple (late regular-season) losses, but in the long run it's preparing us for what's coming in the future."
Leading Zanesville (7-16) was Rashaud Hampton with 25 points. Maddox Hayes and Jordan Cooley added 10 points.
"Missed free throws and rebounding kind of took its toll on us," said Zanesville's Harris. "We gave them a lot of second-chance opportunities and it kind of shot us in the foot, especially when you're undersized."
"We had so many days off we were able to dig deep into the stats and we're actually undefeated when we outrebound our opponent," said Conley, whose Potters won the boards, 28-14. "I thought overall tonight we played tough. We rebounded, we moved the basketball and we had really nice balance."
With taller East Liverpool dominating the glass 14-5 in the first half, the Potters jumped out to a 16-13 lead after one quarter. The hosts, who hit six three-pointers in the opening 16 minutes, hit five triples, including three by Pease in the first half and expanded their lead to 10 points (34-24) at intermission.
"Cohen (Pease) hit some shots early and Quintin (Conrad) got hot and played a great floor game," praised Conley.
The Potters outscored the Blue Devils 24-17 in a big third quarter to lead 58-41 heading into the fourth period.
The Potters took their largest lead at 21 points (72-51) with 2:52 remaining and went on to polish off the 20-point victory.
Conley was glad a 10-day layoff didn't affect his team's play Saturday night.
"We saw a lot of teams get upset early in the Ohio high school playoffs and there ain't no more tomorrows, we had to be ready," said Conley. "I thought we had a great week of practice and I was really proud of our kids because it's tough to practice 10 straight days (without a game) this late in the season, but they were mentally locked in and focused. You could tell they really wanted it."
Conley said the Potters will now turn their full attention to a tough district opponent in John Glenn.
"We're going to enjoy tonight, but it's a quick turnaround (for John Glenn)," said Conley. "We didn't want to look ahead to John Glenn. We had to focus on this game so we really have to dive into it (the game plan) tomorrow. I went and watched John Glenn play last Tuesday and they're good. They have a lot of wins and play in a tough conference, but everyone in the district is good at this time. If you're still playing, you're good."
Z: 13-11-17-18--59
EL: 16-18-24-21--79
ZANESVILLE SCORING: Rashaud Hampton 7-9-25, Drake Tabler 0-1-1, Jace Hicks 0-0-0, Greyson Goines 1-2-4, David Evans 1-5-7, Maddox Hayes 4-2-10, Drew Doyle 5-0-10, Jordan Cooley 1-0-2. Totals: 19, 19-26 59.
EAST LIVERPOOL SCORING: Cohen Pease 3-2-11, Nate Birch 2-0-6, Quintin Conrad 5-2-13, Preston Kerr 5-4-15, Malachi Reed 2-1-6, Blake Adkins 3-0-6, Gavin Wright 0-0-0, Preston Dawson 7-0-14, D'Shawn Kirby 2-1-5, Mikey Smith 1-0-3. TEAM TOTALS: 30, 10-13: 79
Three-point goals: Zanesville 2 (Rashaud Hampton 2) East Liverpool 9 (Cohen Pease 3, Nate Birch 2, Quintin Conrad, Preston Kerr, Malachi Reed, Mikey Smith).
Total fouls: Zanesville 15, East Liverpool 15. Fouled out: none.