KARNS CITY — Karns City applied a lot of pressure from the start.

It just took a while before Deer Lakes succumbed to it.

At Friday's opening night of the Karns City Classic, the Gremlins girls basketball team closed out the third quarter with a 16-2 run, including an 11-0 spurt, to pull away from the Lancers in a 64-50 victory.

With the win, Karns City will face Union, a 64-41 winner over Knoch, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Knoch and Deer Lakes will meet at 4:30 in the consolation final.

"I think we just picked up the intensity in the third quarter," said Karns City coach Dave Kerschbaumer. "It got us a little bit of confidence."

Karns City trailed 28-22 with 1:50 left in the first half until scoring the final seven points in a 49 second span, including a 3-pointer by Melissa Collier, to take a 29-28 lead.

"That stems back to years past," said Lancers second-year coach Doug Rodgers, who played basketball and was a quarterback with the Gremlins. "As soon as things go awry, it keeps going and going."

The Lancers did score the first five points of the second half to take a 33-29 lead, but consecutive baskets by Karns City's Ashley Fuhrer and Tausha Bowser tied the game.

A basket by Brandi Lockerman gave the Lancers the lead, but it was the last one for Deer Lakes.

The Gremlins scored the next 11 points, which started when Fuhrer had a putback and Collier added a pair of free throws.

Then, three consecutive turnovers by the Lancers in the backcourt turned into three quick scores — a Haley Callihan basket off a steal, a 3-pointer by Collier and another basket by Collier — that allowed the Gremlins to open a 44-35 lead with 1:29 left in the third quarter.

"We had 29 turnovers. Any time a team turns up the heat, we struggle," said Rodgers. "Once things start to go wrong, it's tough to stop."

Oddly enough, it was Callihan's first points of the game. She was the Gremlins' leading scorer a year ago and finished with just three points. Allyson Kepple, the team's point guard, had six points, but only two entering the fourth quarter.

"Deer Lakes started with a triangle-and-2 to take both out," said Kerschbaumer. "With the thinking that Haley and Allyson are our 1-2 punch, it's nice to see we were diverse and not stick with them."

The Gremlins received 14 points from Fuhrer, 12 from Collier and 10 from Kailyn Weibel, all coming off the bench.

The loss overshadowed the performance of Brandi Lockerman, who scored 26 points, and her twin sister, Brittany, who added 12.

Andrea Mortimer and Bethany Koch each tallied 19 points in leading the Damsels to the first-round win.Union (1-0) held a 20-12 lead after one quarter and trimmed the deficit to four before the Damsels pushed the lead to 17 at the half."We're kind of fielding a new offense," said Union coach Josh Meeker. "I was pleasantly surprised how much we scored."With Union holding a 43-22 lead early in the third quarter, the Knights (0-1) scored the next seven points — two free throws and a basket from Leanne Wiefling and a trey from Lizz King — to cut the deficit to 14, but couldn't get any closer."The biggest opponent, and I'm not taking anything away from Union, was ourselves," said Knoch coach Curt Vasas. "We had first-game jitters. A lot of these girls were in their first varsity game."Turnovers hurt us. We did not get back in transition like we wanted to. Those things we can work on," Vasas added.The Knights received 12 points apiece from Wiefling and King.Meeker was pleased by the play of Mortimer, who missed volleyball season due to a stress fracture."This was her first action in a couple of months," said Meeker. "She looked real good. I don't want us to be one-dimensional. I don't want people to think if you stop her, you'll stop us."<B>DEER LAKES 50</B>Brittany Lockerman 4 2-4 12, Brandi Lockerman 9 7-13 26, Jocelyn Hatfield 1 2-2 4, Kayla Pavlik 2 0-0 4, Jenn Clifford 2 0-0 4, Casey Burke 0 0-0 0, Ashley Krol 0 0-0 0, Julie Eyerman 0 0-0 0. Totals: 18 11-19 50.<B>KARNS CITY 64</B>Tausha Bowser 3 0-0 8, Allyson Kepple 1 4-4 6, Haley Callihan 1 1-2 3, Ashley Fuhrer 5 4-5 14, Brianna Markle 1 2-2 4, Melissa Collier 3 4-6 12, Kailyn Weibel 3 4-7 10, Mallory Craig 3 1-2 7, Ashley Campbell 0 0-0 0, Kylie Rankin 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 20-28 64.<B>3-point goals:</B> Brittany Lockerman 2, Brandi Lockerman; Bowser 2, Collier 2<B>Saturday:</B> Championship game, Karns City vs. Union 4:30 p.m.<B>KNOCH 41</B>Leanne Wiefling 4 4-4 12, Pam Gagen 1 1-2 3, Ashley MacArthur 2 0-0 4, Sarah Cooper 0 5-6 5, Lizz King 4 2-2 12, Kirsten Brant 0 0-1 0, Kristin Robb 0 0-0 0, Sara Montgomery 1 1-4 3, Katelyn Moretti 0 0-0 0, Megan Schira 0 0-0 0, Megan Gray 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 15-21 41.<B>UNION 64</B>Andrea Mortimer 7 3-6 19, Bethany Koch 9 1-1 19, Tiffany Corle 2 0-1 5, Molly Scott 2 1-4 7, Janele Divins 0 0-0 0, Nikki Davis 0 2-2 2, Mackenzie Shirey 2 0-1 4, Danyelle Painter 3 2-2 8, Colleen Logue 0 0-0 0. Totals: 25 9-17 64.<B>3-point goals:</B> King 2; Mortimer 2, Scott 2, Corle<B>Saturday:</B> Consolation game-Knoch vs. Deer Lakes, 4:30 p.m.; Championship game-Union vs. Karns City, 7:30 p.m.