Salem’s Ty Manion faces up against Heartland’s Jack Morgan on Friday in the Lisbon Tip-Off Tournament. (Photo by Ron Firth)

LISBON — Heartland Christian, which returned two of its key players from last year’s team which reached the Div. IV district title game, jumped out to a 19-5 first-quarter lead and never looked back in defeating Salem 75-41 on Friday in the Lisbon Tip-Off Tournament in Nace Gymnasium.

The Lions (1-0) were led by standout sophomore point guard Collin Kalaher, one of the two returning starters, who took game-scoring honors with 23 points, including three of Heartland’s eight three-pointers in the game. He achieved those numbers despite missing most of the second quarter in foul trouble.

“I think Collin Kalaher came out and just set the tone offensively,” said Heartland Christian head coach Josh Scott. “The kid is special and we have a lot of guys that can really do some things, but Collin is a good athlete and player, and for him just to come out and really take charge tonight that got the other guys going.”

“Our coaches gave us a great game play and we knew we had to execute because they (the Quakers) are a much bigger team,” said Kalaher. “We knew we had to play fast and I think we just wore them out over time.”

The smaller but quicker Lions forced 20 turnovers out of the Quakers as Salem was never able to completely settle into any kind of offensive rhythm in the contest.

“They (the Lions) play hard, they play fast and they can shoot the heck out of it,” said Salem head coach Jeff Andres. “Their pressure certainly made us play a little quicker than we wanted to.”

Complementing Kalahar in double figures for the Lions were Jacob Reed with 15 points, including a trio of treys, Corban Seutia with 12 points and Brody Conaway with 11 markers.

Salem (0-1) was led by Jack Andres with 12 points, including the Quakers’ two triples in the contest, while teammates Colin Riesen and Andrew Beck added nine and seven points, respectively.

“We’re working with some new guys, some young guys and I expect us to play better than we did tonight,” observed Jeff Andres. “That was about as bad as we can play and about as bad as we can shoot. I think we were two for 19 from behind the arc.”

Heartland Chiristian, which started four underclassmen including three sophomores, forced five first-quarter Salem turnovers and jumped out to a 19-5 advantage after one period, led by Kalaher, who had 10 markers in the frame.

But Salem roared back in the second quarter, outscoring the Lions 23-13 to pull within four points (32-28) on a trey by Jack Andres with 1:15 showing before intermission. But Heartland answered with a 4-0 run to take a 10-point (38-28) cushion at halftime.

“Every time we responded with a run of our own they responded with a run,” said Jeff Andres. “It was 32-28 late (in the second quarter) and we gave up six quick points to them and got it (the lead) back to 10.”

With Kalahar back in the lineup in the third quarter, Heartland went on a 12-5 run to open the stanza and outscored the Quakers 19-11 to take an 18-point (57-39) advantage after three.

“That (playing pressure defense and winning the 50-50 balls) is what we’re going to have to do all season,” said Kalahar. “You can tell we’re a small team, so if we don’t do that, we know what’s going to happen.”

“(With a smaller team) we really feel like we have no choice but to play the style we do and we got into a little foul trouble and I kind of assumed that because it was the first-game-of-the- year jitters,” said Scott.

The Lions closed out the win in the fourth period, outscoring Salem 18-2 to take their largest lead at 34 points (75-41) at game’s end.

“We played it (pressure defense) well tonight and they communicated well and I’m super proud of our guys for just how they handled themselves against a good Salem team,” said Scott. “It’s a really good start to the season.”

“They really took it to us there in the fourth quarter and we couldn’t make a shot and they made a lot of shots,” said Jeff Andres.

Salem will play Lisbon in the consolation game of the Lisbon Tip-Off Classic at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

“Tomorrow’s a new day for us,” said Jeff Andres.

Meanwhile, Heartland Christian will play Mogadore in the championship contest of the Lisbon tourney at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. Mogadore advanced to that title meeting with the Lions by rolling past Lisbon 67-35 in the second half of Friday’s tourney doubleheader.

Notes

Salem split two meetings with Heartland Christian (16-10 last season), falling 70-61 in its season opener with the Lions but defeating Heartland 79-71 near the end of the season.

SA: 5-23-11-2–41

HC: 19-19-19-18–75

SALEM SCORING: Evan Jones 0-1-1, Colin Riesen 4-1-9, Cletis Monroy 1-0-2, Andrew Beck 2-3-7, Deontay Steele 1-0-2, Jack Andres 4-2-12, Ty Manion 3-0-6, Luke Davis 0-0-0, Steve Landfried 0-0-0, Chase Valerio 0-0-0, Gavin Colbert 1-0-2, Ben Severe 0-0-0. TEAM TOTALS: 16, 7-12: 41

HEARTLAND CHRISTIAN SCORING: Johnny Meyer 2-0-5, Isaiah Matthews 1-0-3, Brody Conaway 3-5-11, Collin Kalaher 9-4-23, Jack Morgan 2-0-4, Jacob Reed 6-0-15, Brode Hoffman 1-0-2, Connor Norbo 0-0-0, Spencer Pruitt 0-0-0, Corban Seutia 4-4-12, Josh Pennington 0-0-0. TEAM TOTALS: 28, 9-15: 75

Three-point goals: Salem 2 (Jack Andres 2), Heartland Christian 8 (Collin Kalahar 3, Jacob Reed 3, Isaiah Matthews 1, Johnny Meyer 1).

Total fouls: Salem 18, Heartland Christian 12. Fouled out: none.