Lisbon's Luke Kraft (left) and Southern's Richie Sloan go after a rebound Sunday at the Columbiana County Classic. (Special to the Journal/Gary Leininger)

LISBON — East Liverpool’s Cohen Pease always like to shoot, especially when it’s the Columbiana County Classic.

“It’s an all-star game,” he said. “It’s a fun time and I get to play another game with one of my teammates.”

Pease scored a game-high 30 points, hitting eight three-pointers, to capture MVP honors in leading his team to an 84-73 victory at Nace Gymnasium on Sunday night.

“(My teammates) said that kid shoots the crap out of the ball,” said Beaver Local’s Hunter Warrick, who was the MVP for the away team. “We see it every year.”

Pease broke up a close game with 17 points in a four-minute span late in the second half to allow his team to pull away.

East Liverpool’s Nate Birch contributed 17 points as the two Potters combined for 47 of the team’s 84 points. Wellsville’s Tyrell Watkins added 13 points.

Warrick topped his team with 15 points. East Palestine’s Owen Jurjavcic collected 11 points and Lisbon’s Tim Brandon nine.

“It’s fun playing against your rival,” Warrick said.

The players from rival East Liverpool were the difference.

Warrick’s steal and three-pointer gave the away team a 59-53 lead with 10:25 remaining in the game.

Pease hit the first of five straight three-pointers at the 8:51 mark. He had a layup off a pass from Heartland’s Johnny Meyer to give the home team a 70-59 lead with 4:53 to play.

Meyer collected two layups and an assist to boost the lead to 80-65 at the 66-second mark.

“It was fun,” Warrick said. “I’m glad it was competitive.”

The starting lineup for the away team drew a chuckle. It looked more like an offensive line with Salem’s 6-foot-7 Evan Jones, Lisbon’s 6-5 Luke Kraft, United’s 6-4 Trent Ellyson and East Palestine’s 6-5 Kyler Bourne and 6-1 Owen Jurjavcic.

“The big dudes,” Warrick said. “He said you’re going in. I thought it was pretty funny.”

Jones hit a three-pointer as the home team led just 9-7 early on.

“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, how are we going to rebound against those guys?” Pease said. “We had all guards. We adjusted in the second half.”

Game notes

• Warrick said he was surprised by Lisbon’s Tim Brandon, who made three three-pointers.

“I didn’t know he could shoot like that,” he said.

Brandon also had three three-pointers against Columbiana this season.

• “I always like the Heartland kids,” Pease said. “They are well-coached and disciplined. That’s a tribute to Heartland and the coaching staff.”

• Warrick is heading to Utah State to be a student assistant under head coach Jerrod Calhoun, who is wrapping up his first season there.

Calhoun, an East Liverpool native, spent the previous seven seasons at Youngstown State and that is where Warrick got to know him.

“I’m going to do basically what a team manager does,” Warrick said.

He wants to get into coaching college basketball for good reasons.

“Money and I love basketball,” Warrick said. “After college, do you want to do a job the rest of your life? No. I want to stay in basketball. There’s nothing better than doing something you love and getting paid for it.”

• Pease said he plans on playing Division III college basketball somewhere, most likely in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference.

Former East Liverpool teammate Cole Dailey is the top player for Bethany College and recently got All-PAC honors.

“We go see Cole play all the time,” Pease said. “When we were freshmen, he would take us to eat at King Buffet.”

AWAY: 35-38–73

HOME: 33-51–84

AWAY SCORING: Owen Jurjavcic (East Palestine) 5-1-11, Kyler Bourne (East Palestine) 4-0-8, Luke Kraft (Lisbon) 2-0-5, Evan Jones (Salem) 1-0-3, Trent Ellyson (United) 1-0-2, Hunter Warrick (Beaver) 5-1-15, Taylor Johnston (Beaver) 2-2-7, Carson Brock (Leetonia) 3-0-7, CJ Faulkner (Leetonia) 1-0-2, Tim Brandon (Lisbon) 3-0-9, Luke Mercer (United) 1-2-4. TEAM TOTALS: 28-96, 6-9: 73.

HOME SCORING: Cohen Pease (East Liverpool) 11-0-30, Nate Birch (East Liverpool) 6-0-17, Johnny Meyer (Heartland) 3-0-6, Richie Sloan (Southern) 1-1-3, Tyrell Watkins (Wellsville) 5-2-13, Luca Cagliuso (Columbiana) 3-0-7, Evan Neff (Crestview), 0-0-0 Jameson English (Crestview) 2-0-4, Spencer Pruitt (Heartland) 0-0-0, Aaron Keoppel (Southern) 2-0-4, Landon Ramsey (Wellsville) 0-00. TEAM TOTALS: 33-73, 3-4: 84.

Three-point goals: Away 11-42 (Warrick 4, Brandon 3, Kraft, Jones, Johnston, Brock), Home 15-35 (Pease 8, Birch 5, Watkins, Cagliuso).