RIMERSBURG — Scott Booth sat on the Union bench, his head buried in a towel.

Booth, a senior guard for the Golden Knights boys basketball team, gazed up at the scoreboard in disbelief.

The explanation, though, was painfully simple: Two big deficits and Ridgway's Eric Matheson sank Union 58-56 in the first round of the District 9 Class A playoffs Wednesday night.

The Knights (15-8) fell behind by 11 and 14 points at home against Ridgway (14-10), but they managed to claw back into the game both times before succumbing late.

"We were the team crawling back tonight," said Union coach Karen Davis. "You have to come out on the floor ready to just go. We never were on firm footing."

Union fell behind 22-11 midway through the second quarter, but cut the lead to two three minutes later.

That wasn't even the Knights' most impressive rally.

Trailing 42-28 late in the third quarter, Union erased that deficit in just less than three minutes.

Union led 50-46 two minutes into the fourth quarter, but Ridgway settled down and kept the Knights from running away.

That has been the team's M.O. this season, said Elks coach Tony Allegretto.

"We don't like big leads," Allegretto said with more than a hint of sarcasm. "When we get up by nine or 15 points, we let it evaporate quickly so we can have more fun with it."

Matheson was no fun for Union.

The sophomore point guard cut through the Knights' defense and either found the open man or scored.

Matheson finished with 19 points and 11 assists.

"He's a heck of a player," Allegretto said. "He doesn't get nervous and, obviously, we want the ball in his hands."

Matheson hit a turnaround jumper with 27 seconds left to put Ridgway up 57-56.

Union's defense spent much of the night flailing away, trying to steal the ball from Matheson.

The strategy didn't work.

"You aren't going to steal the ball from him," Davis said. "We were lunging and reaching. We needed to keep him in front of us."

Ridgway built its early lead on the strength of offensive rebounds and easy points.

"Our defense in the first half just gave up too many open looks," Davis said.

Booth scored 15 points to lead the Knights. Booth, though, was bottled up most of the game by Ridgway's Ben Jaques.

Logan Mortimer added 14 points, but the Union offense sorely missed speedy guard Zac Smith, who broke his foot last week against Karns City.

"You could see with Scott and Logan they just didn't feel as good with (Smith) not in there," Davis said. "Smitty is a good penetrator and pitcher. He sees the floor well. We definitely missed him."

The loss is another tough one in the postseason for Union.

The Golden Knights lost in the second round to Keystone last season. Two years ago, Union was upset at home by Johnsonburg in the first round.

RIDGWAY 58Eric Matheson 9-14 0-0 19, Jesse Reynolds 0-0 0-0 0, Kevin Marnatti 0-0 0-0 0, Aaron Sorge 2-4 0-0 4, Ben Jaques 4-7 2-4 11, Dom Aiello 5-11 0-0 11, Jordan Lundlin 3-8 1-2 7, Lou Stilwell 1-1 0-0 2, Alex Oknetski 2-3 0-0 4.

Totals: 26-48 3-6 58.

UNION 56Brady Pollock 2-4 1-2 5, Shawn Booth 4-7 0-0 9, Logan Mortimer 6-9 1-3 14, Taylor Smith 1-6 0-0 2, Scott Booth 5-10 5-7 15, Trent Corle 4-6 1-2 11, Chase Johnston 0-0 0-0 0.

Totals: 22-42 8-14 56.

Ridgway 12 14 18 14—58Union 10 12 17 17—563-point goals: Ridgway 3 (Matheson, Jaques, Aiello); Union 4 (Sh. Booth, Mortimer, Corle 2).