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Belpre advances to D-3 sectional final

By Aaron Lee 3 min read

BELPRE - On Monday, the Belpre Golden Eagles hosted the Crooksville Ceramics for a sectional semifinal matchup. Despite a slow start, Belpre picked up the pace and won its final home game of the season in an all-around team effort by a final of 75-55.

Liston hit his first of many triples near the start of the game. Nasiah Spencer had two back-to-back baskets in the first, the former of which was a reverse layup. At the end of the first, the score stood at 14-12 Belpre. Konlan McIntyre, who would go on to score a game-high 24 points, had four field goals in the period.

In the second, an and-1 followed by a triple by Spencer brought the score to 26-22 and forced a Ceramics timeout. After the pause, the Golden Eagles came out on fire. During the entire back half of the second quarter, Belpre did not allow a Crooksville basket. Belpre went on a 16-0 run that included steals that led into baskets by both Chris Copen and Liston, as well as a triple by Blake Church. The Golden Eagles went into halftime up 39-22.

Liston hit his second triple in the third, and also had a commanding block on a Crooksville shot. Going into the final quarter, Belpre was in the lead 47-35.

In a remarkable play in the final quarter, Liston missed a shot, got his own rebound, put it back and drew a foul. He made the free throw for a three-point play. He also hit three triples in the period for a grand total of five, a game-high by a margin of three.

Liston led Belpre with 22 points scored. Junior Bass had a game-high eight rebounds. The Golden Eagles managed 15 steals in the game, with Church snagging five of them.

Belpre head coach Ryan Leasure said of the team's performance, "They came out and played physically. I thought we had some emotions to get through, but once we settled down, we were alright. We've been playing some good basketball, so once we settled down and played five-man basketball, we were just fine."

On what led to the Golden Eagles getting hot in the second, he explained, "We switched some things around defensively and said, 'we gotta get stops.' We've been a really good defensive team, that's what's been carrying us all year, and we gotta get back to it. That's exactly what they did in the second quarter."

No. 10-seed Belpre will play next against the winner of No. 7-seed Fairland and 26th-seeded Huntington at Wellston High School at 8 p.m. Friday in the sectional final.

"It'll most likely be Fairland. They're a solid team. They've been a solid, great program for the last couple years. They can shoot the basketball. We gotta get back to work. We gotta defend. If we don't defend better than we did tonight, we're in trouble. We gotta get back to defending and compete. We've said all year that we want a shot at a sectional title, and we'll have a chance. We just gotta go there and compete."

He concluded, "This was the last home game for our seniors even though we had senior night. They played their butts off. A great win, a 20-point win, so hopefully we can continue to do it and see if we can make some noise in this tournament."

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