Lisbon’s AJ Ramgeet scores as he leads his team to victory Sunday night at the Columbiana County Classic. (Morning Journal/Gary Leininger)

LISBON — The top two players in the Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference faced off another time.

Lisbon’s AJ Ramgeet and Columbiana’s Cooper Brown collected MVP honors for their respective teams at the Columbiana County Classic on Sunday night.

Ramgeet scored 29 points in leading the away team to a 119-116 victory at Nace Gymnasium.

“I wanted to have fun and remember all the tough times playing AJ and all the other guys in the league,” Brown said.

Brown scored 28 of his team-high 31 points in the second half as the home team made a late-game surge. He had five dunks.

“I grew up playing AAU with AJ. He’s a good player and we’ve had a lot of good rivalries,” Brown said.

Columbiana and Lisbon shared the league title.

Ramgeet had plenty of help as Salem’s Deontay Steele scored 31 points with seven three-pointers and Lisbon’s Blaine Barnes had eight three-pointers for 24 points.

“I’ve played AAU with Cooper Brown and Blaine Barnes for eight years,” Ramgeet said. “We want to stay together.”

“I grew up playing AAU with AJ. He’s a good player and we’ve had a lot of good rivalries,” Brown said.

Crestview’s Tyler Savage added 11 points, followed by Leetonia’s Ethan Mathia and Wellsville’s Austin Adkins with nine apiece.

Backing Brown for the home team were United’s Jason Pratt with seven three-pointers for 21 points, Beaver Local’s Luke Rettos with 17 points, Southern’s Landen Heffner with 15 and East Palestine’s Drew Bycroft with 13.

The away team built a 110-86 lead with 5: 36 remaining following four three-pointers by Barnes and a fastbreak layup by Ramgeet.

Then Brown and the home team got back into the game. Pratt and Beaver Local’s Nicolas McKenzie hit consecutive three-pointers and the home team converted four turnovers in a row to baskets to close the gap to 110-100 with four minutes remaining.

Brown scored on a three-pointer, an offensive rebound and layup to pull within 113-107. Rettos had three three-pointers close within three points with six seconds remaining, but the away team ran out the clock.

Ramgeet walked away with the MVP trophy for the winning team.

“That was one of my goals,” he said. “But the main point was to win.”

“AJ always impresses me,” Brown said. “We don’t get a lot of credit around here, but we’ve got a lot of good players.”

Game notes

• Two-time Columbiana County Player of the Year Owen Hill was on the bench, but did not play.

He missed six games due to a stress fracture in his foot. He has a doctor appointment today and expects to see if surgery will be required.

Hill said he played hurt since returning on Feb. 3 and would have continued to do so as long as the Beavers remained alive in the tournament.

He will start his collegiate career at West Liberty University in early August.

• Ramgeet plans on playing college basketball, he just doesn’t know where yet.

• Brown will be studying at the Kent State University main campus.

“I’m officially done with sports,” he said. “It feels funny to say that.”

• Brown said he has shot that many times before, but “I don’t think I’ve ever missed that many. I would have been on the bench if I would have.”

• Heartland Christian coach Josh Scott led the away team to victory a day after guiding his Lions to their first district championship.

None of his Heartland players attended the county game after a physical game against Kidron Central Christian.

Heartland opened the season by winning the Lisbon Tip-Off Tournament, defeating the Blue Devils 81-73 in the championship game.

“I hope the best for them — and they get to state,” Ramgeet said.

Heartland (21-4) will play the Fairport Harding Skippers (22-2) in a regional semifinal at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Barberton High School.

AWAY: 53-66–119

HOME: 51-65–116

AWAY SCORING: Carter Love (Crestview) 1-0-2, Tyler Savage 4-0-11, Aiden Myers (Lisbon) 1-0-2, AJ Ramgeet (Lisbon) 13-0-29, Blaine Barnes (Lisbon) 8-0-24, Ethan Mathia (Leetonia) 3-1-9, Braydon Fennema (Salem) 0-0-0, Deontay Steele (Salem) 12-0-31, Austin Adkins (Wellsville) 4-0-9, Haydin Oliver (Wellsville) 0-0-0. TEAM TOTALS: 46-110, 1-2: 119.

HOME SCORING: Luke Rettos (Beaver) 7-0-17, Nicolas McKenzie 2-0-5, Cooper Brown 13-1-31, Elliott Fitch (East Liverpool) 2-0-4, Drew Bycroft (East Palestine) 6-0-13, Jacob McCurdy (Southern) 1-0-2, Landen Heffner (Southern) 6-0-15, Jason Pratt (United) 7-0-21, Kadin Schonauer (United) 3-0-7. TEAM TOTALS: 47-112, 1-4: 116.

Three-point goals: Away 24-68 (Barnes 8, Steele 7, Savage 3, Ramgeet 3, Mathia 2, Adkins), Home 20-65 (Pratt 7, Brown 4, Rettos 3, Heffner 3, McKenzie, Bycroft, Schonauer).