Columbiana’s Avery Young defends Southern’s Braxton Sloan. (Photos by Ron Firth)

COLUMBIANA — Columbiana went from being the hunted to the hunter.

Hunter Davanzo totaled 15 points, 11 rebounds and four steals as the Clippers held off Southern, 67-59, in Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference play Tuesday.

Seth Struharik totaled 25 points on 14-of-17 free throw shooting and Cooper Brown had 17 points and three blocks in the winning effort.

The Clippers improve to 14-2 overall and 9-1 in league play, one game behind Valley Christian. Southern drops to 6-9 and 4-5 in the EOAC.

Columbiana rallied from a 43-34 deficit in the third quarter thanks to 16-of-20 shooting from the foul line in the second half — including 12-of-13 by Struharik.

The score was tied 48-48 through three quarters and Brown put the Clippers ahead for good with a dunk and three-pointer to make it 53-51. Davanzo converted a conventional three-point play off a Brown assist for a 56-51 lead with 6:34 left in the game. Davanzo scored seven points in the fourth quarter.

Freshman Braxton Sloan topped Southern with a 24 points after being shutout in the opening 8 1/2 minutes. He also had eight rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Landen Heffner and Noah Chase had 15 points apiece. Chase added eight rebounds and Heffner had four assists and three steals. Jacob McCurdy collected five rebounds and three blocks.

Columbiana took an 18-6 lead in the opening six minutes as Struharik scored eight points and Brown had a four-point play.

Southern responded with 24 points in the second quarter with Braxton Sloan scoring 13 of them. The Indians made seven of their first 10 shots of the quarter and finished 9-of-15 to take a 35-32 halftime lead.

Columbiana also won the junior varsity game, 30-21. Trey Snyder and Liam McElwain each scored 12 points for the Clippers. Aiden Davis had nine for the Indians.

Both teams return to league play Friday as Columbiana hosts Lisbon and Southern visits Wellsville.

S: 11-24-13-11–59

C: 19-13-16-19–67

SOUTHERN SCORING: Landen Heffner 6-1-15, Richie Sloan 1-0-3, Jacob McCurdy 1-0-2, Braxton Sloan 8-7-24, Noah Chase 6-2-15, Aaron Keoppel 0-0-0. TEAM TOTALS: 22, 10-15: 59.

COLUMBIANA SCORING: Seth Struharik 5-14-25, Cooper Brown 7-1-17, Luca Cagliuso 1-0-2, Brayden Clancy 0-0-0, Hunter Davanzo 7-1-15, Reese Roush 1-0-3, Trey Snyder 0-0-0, Carter Johnson 1-0-2, Avery Young 0-3-3. TEAM TOTALS: 22, 19-25: 67.

Three-point goals: Southern 5 (Heffner 2, R. Sloan, B. Sloan, Chase), Columbiana 4 (Brown 2, Struharik, Roush).