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CCHS gave top-seeded River all it could handle

DRIBBLING — Steubenville Catholic Central’s Matt Kilonsky (24) dribbles the ball down court while AJ Connor (3) runs out in front during the OVAC Class 2A final against River on Saturday. (Photo by Kim North)

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Before the 2017-18 season began, Mark Romick sat down with his River team. Together it compiled a bucket list for the upcoming campaign. Saturday morning, the Pilots crossed off another goal.

Behind a stiffling third-quarter defense, top-seeded River (20-1) continued its impressive year with a 55-39 come-from-behind victory over No. 2 Steubenville Catholic Central in the Wheeling Hospital OVAC Boys Basketball Championships Class 2A title tilt inside a chilly Ohio University Eastern’s Health and Physical Education Center.

The championship was the Pilots second ever, the first coming nearly five decades ago in 1973.

“This is pretty sweet,” veteran River head coach Mark Romick said. “To double up with what the girls did last weekend is great for both programs. It’s great for the kids. You can’t be happier for our seniors. They’ve put in a lot of time and the kids have worked really hard.

“That’s 20 wins on the season for us. That ties the school record. We had goals set whenever the season started. It’s kind of comical but we go over those goals every day during practice. I asked them what goal No. 1 was, and they responded ’16 wins.’ I said ‘OK, you’ve got a checkmark.’ I said we’re not going to stop there, and they said ‘no, we’re going on.'”

The Pilots, who were ranked as high as No. 2 in the Ohio Division IV poll this season, had to overcome a stern test from the Crusaders (12-8). The teams were deadlocked at 11 after one quarter before Central took a slim 24-23 edge into the lockeroom at halftime.

Sparking the Crusaders was Donnie Vandeborne. The senior netted 18 of his team-best 23 points in the first 16 minutes. However, he and classmate AJ Connor were the only Crusaders to make a field goal in the game.

“We were right there with them. We went cold in the third quarter offensively, and when you’re playing a team like River, if you through a bad spell like we did, you get yourself in trouble because it’s so tough to come back against them,” Central head coach Chris Tarquinio said.

While River was playing in-your-face defense in the third quarter that limited the Crusaders to 1-for-6 shooting and forced four turnovers, Lukas Isaly and the Pilots’ role players were coming up big.

Isaly, the Pilots’ 2,000-point standout, scored five points in the quarter. Sophomore Stone Thompson added four in a reserve role. Drew Dietz and Dillon Grimes knocked down key 3-pointers as River took a 38-26 advantage into the final chapter.

Isaly tallied 10 fourth-quarter lightings to help the Pilots navigate to the crown. He finished with 29, which gives him 2,034 for his career.

“I’ve said it before. He is one of the best players around,” Tarquinio said of Isaly. “When you play a player like him, you just try and contain him. I thought we did that for the most part, but he hit a couple of buckets there that changed the momentum to their side. Then they had a couple of other guys hit big baskets.”

The title not only comes on the heels of the girls’ crown last week, but also gives the Pilots a double-double to go along with their football championship.

“These kids came out of football late and people said that would be a detriment, but it wasn’t because the kids got into basketball shape pretty quick,” Romick said. “I think the success they enjoyed in football carried over into basketball.”

Thompson added nine points and three rebounds. He also played very well on defense and distributed the ball on offense.

“Stone has done a great job all year, but today I think he played his best game yet,” Romick said. “We sat down with him in the middle of the year and told him he was going to have to score some for us. He has the ability to score and he has some tenacity. Today we put him at the high post, and he did an excellent job there.”

Grimes chipped in eight points, while Dietz added six markers and a team-leading eight boards.

In addition to Vandeborne’s 23, AJ Connor finished with 13. That’s 36 of the Crusaders’ 39.

“I’m very proud of these guys. Nobody thought we would be here. Nobody at all,” Tarquinio said. “It’s an honor to play in this championship game. I’m not in here for moral victories, though. We want to win titles and, unfortunately, we fell short tonight, but Donnie and AJ brought us here and the younger guys have learned from that. We’ll be back. We’ll be back here.”

River led 25-22 off the glass and also had two less turnovers at 12-10.

“Give them credit,” Romick said of Steubenville Catholic. “Chris does a great job up there, and they gave us everything we wanted.”

The Pilots conclude the regular season Tuesday at Frontier with a chance at setting a new school record for wins.

Game notes:

¯ River’s 20 wins tie the mark set back in the mid-80s, according to Romick.

¯ Isaly was voted the game’s MVP.

River 55, Steubenville Catholic 39

CCHS 11-13-2-13 — 39

River 11-12-15-17 — 55

CCHS: A. Connor 3-9 5-8 13; Vandeborne 7-16 5-6 23; DiBiase 0-1 0-0 0; Kilonsky 0-3 1-2 1; Stoll 0-1 0-0 0; Costello 0-0 2-2 2; L. Connor 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 10-30, 13-18: 39.

RIVER: Isaly 9-14 8-8 29; Dietz 1-4 3-4 6; Hupp 1-2 1-2 3; Murphy 0-2 0-0 0; Grimes 3-6 0-0 8; Thompson 4-9 0-1 9; Lawrence 0-0 0-0 0; VanCamp 0-0 0-0 0; Brown 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 18-37, 12-15: 55

3-POINT GOALS: Steubenville Catholic 6 (Vandeborne 3, A. Connor 3); River 7 (Isaly 3, Dietz, Grimes 2, Thompson).

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