“That’s the reason that we play the schedule that we do, so that we’re prepared this time of year to play a game like that,” Raiders coach Jeff Fishel said. “I thought that really helped us early. East Palestine, give them credit, they’re a really good team. They’re really well-coached.”

South Range moves on to take on Columbiana in the Division III Struthers District semifinals Wednesday at 6 p.m. The Clippers took down Ursuline in their sectional bracket final to advance.

The Raiders scored 25 points in the first quarter while holding the Bulldogs to a single point. South Range got hot at the right time and, according to Fishel, had their best start to a game this season.

“When we were able to come out with that start, I think it kind of affected their energy,” Fishel said. “That just ended up carrying over and being a big benefit for us. That was probably the best we’ve started a game all season and what a time for it.”

Staff photo / Brian Yauger Kenzee Johnston of East Palestine drives to the net against the defense of South Range’s Lexi Giles in Saturday’s game.

Both top scorers for South Range, Izzy Lamparty and Lexi Giles, were held out of the fourth quarter. Lamparty led the Raiders with 19 points and Giles finished with 18. According to Fishel, Giles lives in the gym and her performance Saturday proved that.

“Lexi puts in a ton of time behind the scenes,” Fishel said. “She’s a gym rat, and she’s in there all the time and it shows. For her to come out and play a game like that is just a testament to how much work she puts in and how hard she works. She made a huge difference in that game for us.”

East Palestine ends its season at 15-9 and has now had back-to-back seasons over .500 for the first time in recent memory.

“I thought we had an amazing season,” Bulldogs coach Will Franklin said. “For us to have back-to-back winning seasons, which hasn’t happened in a while, the girls played hard every game. You can’t take that away from them. We had some big wins this year. A lot of positives, we got a tournament win finally. I’m not disappointed, I’m really happy with the way our season shaped up.”

“This time of year is exciting,” Fishel said. “You have to go play a game at historic Struthers Fieldhouse. Everybody that gets the pleasure of going down there is a good basketball team. We’re going to get in the gym and work hard and we’re excited for a challenge on Wednesday night.”

South Range (17-6) has played a challenging schedule which gives them the opportunity to play against top Division II schools like Poland and West Branch. That challenge in the regular season can only help as they move on in the tournament.

“It helps us a lot because we played some teams that weren’t in our division, that were like harder teams,” Giles said. “So, when we come and play in our division, we’re more prepared and we’re ready.”