Heartland Christian's Brody Conaway leads the break ahead of Cornerstone's Kolsen Keeper in a district semifinal Monday. (Special to the Journal/Lowell Spencer)

COLUMBIANA — The Heartland Christian Lions purposely scheduled a challenging slate this year to prepare themselves for tournament play. Entering the Lions district semifinal with Cornerstone Christian, the hope was that the Lions were well-prepared for competition like the defending Division VII state runner-up Patriots program.

The Lions displayed with an exclamation point that they were up to the test with a resounding 82-42 victory over the 14th-seeded Patriots on Monday night, advancing them to a district championship game for the third straight season at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. It improves the third-seeded Lions’ overall record to 20-4, and they will face the seventh-seeded Kidron Central Christian Comets at Smithville High School.

“The performance the guys gave tonight is unbelievable. I can’t put it into words,” said Heartland Christian coach Josh Scott. “Our guys were locked in. We had 15 threes, I think. When we are shooting the ball like that and defending the ball, the sky is the limit for this team.”

“We knew that they were not the typical 14th seed,” Heartland junior Collin Kalaher said. “They were right above 500 on the season, but they had a really tough schedule and had a lot of close games. So, we knew we were going to have to work our tails off.”

The Lions utilized a tenacious defense and sizzling-hot shooting to lead from shortly after the opening tip to the final buzzer, pulling away continuously throughout the contest. The Lions made 14 three-pointers and converted on 6-of-7 foul shots. Defensively, they held the Patriots to their second-lowest point total of the season.

“I would say 90 percent of our talk in practice leading up to the game was all defensive. We know we can shoot the ball well, and we get out in transition, but everything our offense goes through is just our defense in there getting after it on that end as well,” Kalaher said.

“You couldn’t leave anybody wide open,” Scott said. ” They are well-rounded across the board offensively that you couldn’t just pick a guy to not guard. Credit to our guy. I think our guys defended so well tonight, it made it look like it did.”

The Lions raced out to a quick 9-0 lead in the first three and a half minutes of the opening stanza before the Patriots finally scored their first basket at the 4:11 mark of the frame. The Lions went on to enjoy a nine-point, 14-5 advantage at the close of the period.

By the time the Lions’ Isaiah Matthews knocked down a trey at the 3:45 mark of the second quarter, the Lions had built a commanding 19-point, 30-11 lead. By the time Kalaher connected on a shot from behind the arc with 32 seconds remaining in the half, the Lions’ advantage had increased to 21 at 40-19. The Patriots answered with a trey of their own in the final seconds of the half to make it a 40-22 score at halftime.

The Lions showed no signs of cooling off in the second half as they once again applied an intense defense while knocking down most of their shots. By the time senior Corban Seutia canned consecutive three-pointers a minute apart, the Lions enjoyed a 23-point, 53-30 advantage. Matthews and Jack Morgan got in on the hot outside shooting with two three-pointers in the final 45 seconds of the period to propel the Lions to a 31-point, 65-32 lead at the close of the third period.

“We have seen so much from these guys (Cornerstone),” Scott said. “And we knew that they could be a flash in the pan offensively, and on the defensive side, they are really good at getting takes, being aggressive, and physical. We kept telling our guys that they can go on a 10-0 run in a spurt, so we cannot let up. We have to keep attacking them.”

It only took a couple of minutes into the fourth quarter before the Lions reached the 35-point running clock mercy rule. Additional treys by Hudson Miller and Alex Hamilton coming off the bench helped push the Lions to the final 40-point final margin.

“Beating a team like Cornerstone, and by this many points, just energizes us for the next game,” Kalaher said. “We know if we come out in our next game and replicate it and be even a little better, we will be fine.”

The Patriots were led by Karson Keeper with 15 points in the games while RJ McCain added 12. McCain connected on two three-pointers.

Kalaher scored a game-high 23 points, including four three-pointers, to pace the Lions. Matthews added 15, with three treys.. Junior Jack Morgan chipped in with 10 points.

“Either way, we are going to be undersized because both teams are big,” Scott remarked about facing Western Reserve or Kidron in the district championship. “Once you get to a district final, you’re not playing anybody bad. For us, it will be a matter of us doing what we did tonight.”

C: 5-17-10-10–42

H: 14-26-23-19–82

CORNERSTONE SCORING: Darrien Davis 3 2-4 8, Jaxson Croyts 1 0-0 2, Alijah Turner West 1 0-0 2, Karson Keeper 6 3-4 15, RJ McCain 5 0-0 12, Jalen Clart 1 0-0 3. TEAM TOTALS: 17, 5-8: 42.

HEARTLAND SCORING: Isaiah Matthews 6 0-0 15, Reagan Kalaher 2 0-0 5, Collin Kalaher 8 3-3 23, Jack Morgan 4 0-0 10, Brody Conaway 1 3-4 5, Jacob Reed 4 0-0 8, Corban Seutia 3 0-0 8, Easton Jones 1 0-0 2, Hudson Miller 1 0-0 3, Alex Hamilton 1 0-0 3. TEAM TOTALS: 31, 6-7: 82.

Three-point goals: Cornerstone 3 (McCain 2, Clart 1), Heartland 14 (Collin Kalaher 4, Mathews 3, Morgan 2, Seutia 2, Reagan Kalaher 1, Miller 1, Hamilton 1).