Boys basketball: Dynamic duo of Grant Hartley and Liam Goran carries Keystone past Columbia

COLUMBIA STATION — Keystone unleashed an incredible one-two punch that sent Columbia to the mat over and over again, yet the Raiders continued to fight their way back into the game. Eventually the guard tandem of Liam Goran and Grant Hartley was too much for Columbia to overcome as Keystone came away with a 71-62 victory Friday night. "They've been doing that all year," Wildcats coach Jeff Holzhauer said. "A lot of times we don't get them both doing it at the same time, but that's our team. Those two kind of lead us — they lead us in scoring — but we have a lot of other guys that do a lot of other things that go unnoticed by the common fans. So we're a lot more than just those two." The pair certainly made things easier for the Wildcats during the Lorain County League showdown. Goran, a 6-foot-2 freshman, hit five 3-pointers en route to a 21-point first half — he finished with a game-high 29 points — as each long shot sparked a run for Keystone and sent a dagger into the heart of the Columbia defenders. "It's really fun when you're feeling good and you shoot it and you know it's going in," Goran said. "(Those shots) gave us some comfort and just brought the energy and kept that energy throughout the whole game. That really helped us pull away for the win." With Keystone (9-9, 7-4 LCL) leading 51-50 after three quarters, Hartley took control in the fourth. The 5-10 senior blitzed the lane over and over, scoring 12 of his 22 points in the deciding quarter — five of which came from the free throw line. "Our season's been a lot of close games at the end and we can't finish them out," Hartley said. "So I knew going into the fourth quarter we had to finish this one and I knew I had to get to the free throw line to do it. If I miss shots, I've always been told to just keep shooting, keep doing what you're doing, never put your head down. So the people that told me that I've got to give them credit for all the support." Columbia (9-7, 7-4) refused to go away every time Keystone tried to pull away during the first three quarters. Dylan Fisher and Ethan Meier hit back-to-back 3-pointers to end the first quarter and pull Columbia within 17-15. Meier, Carter Duley and Logan Menge combined for a 7-0 run to end the first half and pull the Raiders within six. Nathan Borling hit two 3-pointers and Justin Smith connected from behind the arc as Columbia outscored Keystone 19-14 in the third. "The biggest issue we had was they got some offensive rebounds that led to some big threes," Columbia coach Josh Scharf said. "Those were big momentum killers for us. We're young and we're growing. We're learning from games like this, but I think we're going to have to focus back on some of the fundamentals that we were lacking tonight." No amount of fundamentals may have been enough to slow down the Keystone duo. While Goran is a tall freshman who fires away from long range and Hartley is a speedy senior who is fearless under the rim, the pair seems to make the odd dynamic work. "The great thing is they're really good friends," Holzhauer said. "There's no jealousy, there's no animosity, there's no competing. They share the ball and they shoot at the same basket since Day 1 of practice this year. They're always together so it's something we were excited about coming into the year." Hartley said it's no surprise that he and Goran have been a lethal combination all season long. It's something they expected as they've been working on their chemistry long before the season began. "I knew for the last few years that Liam was going to come into high school and we were going to be a huge threat," Hartley said. "It's awesome, seeing in the paper — freshman-senior duo — yeah, it's really cool." It hasn't been as cool for opposing defenses. Columbia pulled off the narrow win during the first meeting with Keystone and knew the formula to success against the Wildcats was limiting the star guards. "I mean, it's tough," Scharf said. "They're a really good one-two punch and the theory is you take them away and let everybody else get theirs. And we tried to take them away, but did not do a very good job at it. So credit to them, they played extremely well." Contact Shaun Bennett at (440) 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @ShaunBennettct on X. Keystone 71, Columbia 62 KEYSTONE (71): Emory Fedor 1-0-2, Liam Goran 11-0-29, Grant Hartley 6-9-22, Blake Moore 1-0-3, Logan Nagle 4-0-8, Zach Shackelford 3-0-7, Karter Urig 0-0-0, Tucker Webb 0-0-0. Totals 26-9-71. COLUMBIA (62): Ethan Meier 5-1-13, Carter Duley 3-0-6, Nathan Borling 6-3-17, Logan Menge 2-2-8, Dylan Fisher 2-0-6, Jack Washburn 0-0-0, Justin Smith 4-3-12. Totals 22-9-62. Keystone&emsp;&emsp;17 20 14 20 — &emsp;&emsp;71Columbia&emsp;&emsp;15 16 19 12 — &emsp;&emsp;62 Three-point goals: Keystone 10-23 (Goran 7, Hartley, Moore, Shackelford), Columbia 9-22 (Meier 2, Menge 2, Borling 2, Fisher 2, Smith). Field goals: Keystone 26-58 (45 percent), Columbia 22-48 (46 percent). Free throws: Keystone 9-12 (75 percent), Columbia 9-16 (56 percent). Rebounds: Keystone 30 (Nagle 8), Columbia 31 (Borling 8). Turnovers: Keystone 6, Columbia 14. Team fouls: Keystone 15, Columbia 16. Fouled out: Shackelford.Junior varsity: Keystone, 54-31