Bears grind out big win against Lisbon
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LISBON--The Leetonia girls basketball team picked up a big conference win over Lisbon 50-47 Monday night behind a 16 point performance from Ari Russell.
"Winning this game means so much to everyone," Russell said. "Last year was the first year we beat Lisbon in a long time and we hope to keep this reputation up."
With the win, Leetonia improves to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference play.
Lisbon is now 4-3 overall and 3-2 in league play.
"I'm glad we all worked as a team tonight," Russell said. "We were starting to lose our momentum in the second half but coach told us to keep up the energy and stay positive."
Lisbon led 37-36 going into the final quarter and led 44-41 late in the fourth quarter until Leetonia's Sabrina Schneider hit a three-pointer to tie the game.
Clutch free throw shooting from Leetonia down the stretch led the Bears to victory.
Lisbon's Alyssa Chestnut, who made two 3-pointers earlier in the game to give the Blue Devils the lead, missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
"We knew we had a big challenge coming into tonight," Leetonia coach John Hritz said. "Lisbon is a tremendous ball team and our goal was to stop Izzy Perez."
Perez finished with 18 points and seven steals for the Blue Devils.
"Our three seniors played a great game for us tonight," Hritz said. "It's a big win for the program because we are still a young team."
Leetonia seniors Sabrina Schnieder finished with 14 points and Kayla Jackson finished with nine points.
"We didn't come out mentally prepared for the game tonight," Lisbon coach Jamie Entrikin said. "We were in foul trouble all night and offensively we didn't take care of the basketball."
"You've got to give Leetonia a lot of credit tonight," Entrikin said. "They out-hustled us tonight, they got a lot of second chance shots, and made free throws in the clutch."
Leetonia made five of eight free throws late in the game.
"We've got to worry about Columbiana now in the league but beating Lisbon was a big confidence builder for us," Hritz said. "The kids played a great game tonight."
Lisbon looks to grow despite two close league losses in the past two weeks.
"We've got a young team and the way you get experience is to go through them," Entrikin said. "Don't get you're head down, come ready to practice tomorrow and be ready to play."
Also for Lisbon, Maddie Liberati had 11 points and six rebounds. Hailee Carpenter had seven points and Autumn Oehlstrom finished with eight rebounds.
"I think playing Columbiana close got expectations a little higher than they should've," Entrikin said. "We are going to keep working and get better as the season goes."
Leetonia travels to Heartland on Wednesday.
Lisbon travels to Southern on Thursday.
In jayvee action, Lisbon won 37-31.
For Lisbon, Corinne Freeman had 21 points.
For Leetonia, Taran Ferry and Hayleigh Brock had eight points.
LEETONIA:14-7-15-14--50
LISBON:7-13-17-10--47
LEETONIA SCORING: Anna Buffone 4-1-9 , Sydney Mesmer 0-2-2 , Kayla Jackson 3-3-9 , Taran Ferry 0-0-0 , Sabrina Schneider 5-3-14 , Ari Russell 6-4-16 . TEAM TOTALS: 18:13-30:50
LISBON SCORING: Izzy Perez 6-4-18 , Cadee Johnson 0-0-0 , Hailee Carpenter 3-1-7 , Chloe Smith 2-1-5 , Autumn Oehlstrom 2-0-6 , Maddie Liberati 5-1-11 , Corinne Freeman 0-0-0 . TEAM TOTALS: 18, 7-17:47
Three-point goals: Leetonia 1 (Scheider), Lisbon 4 (Perez 2, Chestnut 2)