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Howland loses on road to East in opener

YOUNGSTOWN — Last season, it took the East Golden Bears 10 games to get their first victory of the season. After they got it, they wouldn’t get another one until last night.

The victory came against the Howland Tigers, 64-56, as they overcame a late surge and calmly made a few more plays down the stretch.

After an even first quarter with the score knotted at 13, Howland (0-1) held a 26-25 lead at the half.

That lead disappeared in the second half when East started running the floor more consistently to build out a seven-point lead midway through the third quarter.

“We came in worried about two things: not turning the ball over and not giving up offensive rebounds,” Howland coach Dan Bubon said. “We didn’t do a great job in either of those areas. In another area we did a bad job at was getting back on defense.

“They leaked out and beat us down the floor. We kept telling our two guys up top to get back, but there were times when we got back but never saw the ball. It went right by us and they were laying it in. Those are killers.”

Howland had 12 turnovers in the game and saw the Golden Bears control the boards 36 to 28, but they still got good guard play from Cameron Durig and Gage Tomko. Durig led the Tigers with 15 points while Tomko added eight points with five assists.

That play helped the Tigers get within two at 45-43 heading into the fourth quarter.

Howland couldn’t find the success it needed down the stretch as East held the Tigers’ big men (Gabe Badea and Justin Jones) to just four points in the final quarter.

“They did not play well tonight,” Bubon said. “I think as they relax, they’ll play better. They have more ability to score inside than they showed tonight. We just needed a little bit of that tonight. This is a typical game 1 — sloppy, back-and-forth and down to the end.

“They made more plays at the end. The made a lot of foul shots which traditionally they aren’t a good foul-shooting team. They got more loose balls than us. The little things add up to winning games. We didn’t play as bad as we feel right now. We still feel bad that we lost the game. We didn’t play terrible. It’s all fixable things. It’s frustrating. You want to win that first game.”

The Golden Bears (1-1) had three players in double-figure scoring with Reuben Talley’s 16 points, Jaquan Ferrell’s 11 points, and Dasan Dupree’s 10 points.

“We talked about just relaxing and playing our game,” East coach Kevin Cyler said. “We haven’t gotten a victory in a long time. Learning how to win is really important for this group. We got it right tonight. I don’t want to harp on the bad things that happened. Those guys fixed what we wanted them to fix.”

“These are city boys,” Cylar said. “They have adversity in their lives. They know how to bounce back. I knew that even though they came back from a six- or seven-point lead, that took something out of Howland to make that.

“I told them to overcome the adversity, stay strong, and let’s look to push the lead back out. High school basketball is a game of runs and momentum. We just have to get them used to making runs and weathering the storm.”

East was able to do just that with Talley finding Ferrell where he was able to hit some big 3-pointers. Talley finished with eight assists. Farrell also went to the line and hit four straight free throws to keep it a two-possession game down the stretch.

“Those two stood out and were really clutch,” Cyler said. Dasan had three baskets back-to-back-to-back where he showed his great moves. He also had a nice key pass to Raymond Hammond for a layup. He did his work down on the baseline. We wanted to get him going offensively. Those four guys really stood out.”

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