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Quakers have a way to go to catch Potters

Salem’s Jon Null heads to the basket against East Liverpool on Tuesday in Salem. (Salem News/Gary Leininger)

SALEM — Young Salem has made great strides with its boys’ basketball team this winter but the Quakers were tangling with a whole different challenge when the tall, talented and veteran East Liverpool Potters, winners of 11 of their previous 14 games, rolled into Cabas Gymnasium in the fourth annual Kent State Columbiana County Classic Tuesday night.

Final score: East Liverpool 85, Salem 53.

Salem had just two seniors, a junior, a sophomore and a freshman in its starting lineup against the much-taller Potters who started four seniors and have eight seniors on their roster.

“They (the Potters) certainly have some leadership with some guys who have played a lot of minutes for them and have had a lot of success,” said Salem head coach Jeff Andres. “They’re definitely a solid team.”

“I was happy tonight,” said East Liverpool head coach Nate Conley. “I didn’t think we looked sharp but we played hard, but we have to be better than that, this is our 10th road game, so we’ve been on the road a lot.”

Conley said Salem is going through what East Liverpool experienced a few years back when it played all underclassmen and it’s paid big dividends the past two seasons.

“We took our lumps when our kids were freshman and sophomores, like they (the Quakers) are now,” said Conley, “but you can tell Salem is going to be good — those sophomores they have possess length and skill. It (going through growing pains years ago) was a process and we really had to fight through it, but it’s paying off, we went to the district finals last year and we’re right there this year. We’re knocking at the door, as long as we stay hungry and don’t get complacent.”

Andres agreed.

“They (the Potters) were in the same boat a couple years ago and then went young, took some lumps and it’s come back ten fold, so hopefully we’ll be able to do that and duplicate that,” said the Salem coach.

Leading the Potters against Salem was 6-3 senior forward Brennan O’Hara who took game-scoring honors with 24 points, while teammates Tresean Jackson and Devin Toothman added 16 and 12 points, respectively, and senior Nick Woodyard added eight markers. The winners had 10 players score in the game.

“It is just one of the big games in the county,” said O’Hara of the annual Salem-East Liverpool rivalry. “It’s always a good game and it’s just fun that Kent State puts it on, so you have something extra to play for,” he added.

“He (O’Hara) is consistent every single night,” praised Conley. “You know what you’re going to get out of him and when he’s hitting shots, it makes it even better. Tonight he just took over.”

Salem was paced by junior Hunter Griffith with 12 points and he was the lone Quaker in double digits. Teammate Drew Weir added nine markers.

With the loss, Salem is now 2-13 overall, while East Liverpool, which won possession of the Kent State County Classic Traveling Trophy, improved to 12-3 overall.

The Quakers stayed right with the Potters for the first quarter-and-a-half and trailed East Liverpool just 22-21 following a free throw by the Quakers’ Hunter Griffith with 4:26 showing before halftime.

Then the game turned on the proverbial dime.

The Quakers went scoreless for the final 4:26 of the half, while East Liverpool went on a 12-0 run in that time to take a 34-21 lead and momentum into the locker room.

“First half, I thought we were right there, it’s 24-21, but they (the Potters) have some leadership and we’re young and we were getting some shots but we didn’t finish real well,” said Andres.

The trend continued in the second half as the Potters forced many Salem turnovers which ended up in fast break points for East Liverpool. The Potters outscored the Quakers 30-18 in the third quarter and took a commanding 64-39 lead at quarter’s end. The Quakers had 21 turnovers for the game to 10 miscues for the winners.

“There at the end of the first half and (at the start) of the second half, we turned it over to them and gave them scoring opportunities on fast breaks,” said Andres. “I was very disappointed, it was a layup drill, but I just wish we would have made them work a little harder for buckets.”

With East Liverpool up by 32 points (74-42) with 4:38 left in the game, Conley pulled his starters. The Potters actually took their largest lead at 35 points twice in the fourth period, the last coming at 85-50 with 20 seconds left and they closed out the win.

O’Hara said experience plays a big role in the Potters’ success.

“We have eight seniors on the team and that’s huge and if someone is not playing so well, you can just bring someone else off the bench because everyone can play,” said the Potter standout who is a steadying influence in a very talented lineup.

NOTES

• It was all Kent State during the evening, as Flash, the Kent State mascot was present and both the Salem and East Liverpool teams and cheerleaders wore special T-shirts in the warm-ups with Kent State Classic printed on them.

• At halftime, two Salem students and two East Liverpool students were awarded $500 scholarships to those Kent State branches.

“It’s fantastic for the communities that Kent State does this,” said Andres.

“It’s great that Kent State does this, it’s awesome,” added Conley.

Of course, Salem and East Liverpool are home to a KSU Branch campus and KSU drawings and giveaways were available at the game.

• Salem held off East Liverpool 57-54 to win the junior varsity game.Brock Young led Salem with 16 points, while Cooper Stockman added 14 markers.

• The Quakers go on the road Friday when they play at Marlington in an Eastern Buckeye Conference contest against the Dukes.

The Potters play St. Clairsville for the Buckeye 8 championship Saturday at 6 p.m at Edison Local High School.

“We have a big one Saturday, we haven’t won the Buckeye 8 for a handful of years,” said Conley who wants to see the Potters end that streak.

E. LIVERPOOL: 14-20-30-21-85

SALEM: 12-09-18-14-53

E. LIVERPOOL SCORING: Brennan O’Hara 7-8-24, Timmy Neal 1-0-2, Gannon Irvine 2-0-4, Tresean Jackson 5-6-16, Zavea Green 1-1-3, Nick Woodyard 3-2-8, Levi George 1-0-3, Cole Dailey 3-3-9, Devin Toothman 4-4-12, Cam Beverly 0-0-0, Jerome Beal 2-0-4, Damani Brown 0-0-0. TEAM TOTALS: 29, 25-36: 85.

SALEM SCORING: Hunter Griffith 4-1-12, Sam Walter 1-1-3, Brock Young 1-2-4, Cam Jaquette 0-0-0, Landon Cooper 0-0-0, Kaleb Caldwell 1-0-2, Logan Blissenbach 1-2-4, Drew Weir 3-0-9, Davin Koskinen 1-0-2, Jon Null 1-0-2, Dillon Monroy 0-1-1, Jaren Snyder 1-1-3, Caden Rohm 1-1-4, Caleb Stockman 2-1-5. TEAM TOTALS: 18, 10-19: 53.

Three-point goals: E. Liverpool 2 (Brennan O’Hara 2). Salem 5 (Drew Weir 3, Hunter Griffith 1, Caden Rohm 1). Total fouls: E. Liverpool 17, Salem 24. Fouled out: none.

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