KARNS CITY — In the battle of A-C Valley's turnovers versus Karns City's free throw shooting woes, the turnovers won.

It turned out the Falcons' penchant for throwing the basketball away was more harmful than the Gremlins' inability to make foul shots as the Karns City boys basketball team emerged with a 66-52 win Wednesday night.

A-C Valley committed 13 turnovers in the third quarter alone and had more than 30 in the game.

Meanwhile, Karns City was 16-of-34 from the free throw line, keeping the mistake-prone Falcons within striking distance.

"You usually don't miss (18) free throws and win," said Karns City coachSteve Andreassi. "That is unheard of. We're going to shoot about 1,000 of them (in practice)."

There were some bright spots at the line for Karns City.

Kody Craig was 7-of-10 in the fourth quarter, and Mike McConnell was 6-of-9 in the game.

But the rest of the team was a 3-of-15.

"That could lose you a basketball game," Andreassi said.

It didn't, though. And no one was more relieved than Andreassi.

On the other side of the court, A-C Valley coach Jim Marron still can't understand why his team is so reckless with the basketball.

It's been a season-long quandary for the Falcons.

"We had 26 turnovers in one half in a game this season," Marron said. "You shouldn't have 26 turnovers in two games. That's been our story all year."

Despite the turnovers, A-C Valley (8-6 overall and 6-4 in the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference) stuck around.

The Falcons led by two points at the end of the first quarter and trailed by two at the half.

Karns City (10-5, 8-3) opened the third quarter with an 8-0 run, and A-C Valley was in catch-up mode the rest of the game.

"Every time it looked like we were going to come back, we'd turn the ball over," Marron said. "It killed us."

Ryan Jackson scored 10 points in the first quarter for A-C Valley, but Karns City guard Mike Senopole scored 11 of his own in the first eight minutes.

They both ended up with 22 points.

"He scored that many because we got the ball into him," Marron said of Jackson's offensive outburst. "Then we quit playing. We quit running the offense."

Senopole was just as unstoppable in the first period.

"He's really raised the bar on his game the last couple of weeks," Andreassi said.

Karns City made an adjustment to cool off Jackson, putting more pressure on A-C Valley's guards.

That strategy worked well at the start of the second half and contributed to the Gremlins' run.

A-C Valley turned the tables at the end of the third quarter, using three straight steals and baskets to slice a 12-point deficit in half heading into the final period.

Karns City held off the charge, however.

A-CValley, which has been a deadly 3-point shooting team, hit just two of their 17 attempts.

Shawn Courson, A-CValley's leading scorer, had a particularly tough night.

He did score 11 points, but was just 2-of-14 from the floor. Courson didn't make his first field goal until the fourth quarter.

A-C VALLEY 52Nate Silvis 1-9 1-2 3, Kyle Hirsch 1-6 0-0 2, Garrett Greathouse 4-13 0-0 9, Ryan Jackson 8-10 6-6 22, Nick McGuirk 0-0 0-0 0, Shawn Courson 2-14 7-7 11, Brandon Eiler 2-4 0-0 5.

Totals: 18-56 14-15 52

KARNS CITY 66Mike Senopole 8-13 3-4 22, Cory Terwilliger 1-2 0-0 2, Mike McConnell 0-2 6-9 6, Cameron Turner 2-4 0-2 4, Matt McConnell 2-4 0-4 5, Kody Craig 0-3 7-10 7, Dan Everetts 4-11 0-1 8, Kevin Beck 6-15 0-4 12.

Totals: 23-54 16-34 66

A-C Valley 16 10 8 18—52Karns City 14 14 14 24—663-point goals: A-C Valley (Greathouse, Eiler); Karns City (Senopole 3, Matt McConnell)

JV: A-C Valley 56-47

Friday: Redbank Valley at A-C Valley

Tuesday: Cranberry at Karns City

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