CLARION — Patience may be a virtue, but Clarion-Limestone was having none of it.

The District 9 champion turned up the pressure on Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic in their first-round PIAA Class A boys basketball tournament game Friday night at Clarion University's Tippin Gymnasium.

The result was 21 Trojan turnovers — many leading to quick buckets the other way — and a 60-45 Clarion-Limestone victory.

“We tried to be patient because that's how we like to play,” CWNC coach Dave Long said. “Clarion-Limestone turned up the pressure and forced us out of that.

“We boarded the bus, came up here and gave it our best shot. We knew this would be a tough draw.”

Clarion-Limestone (24-3), the District 9 champion, won its 12th straight game.

The Trojans (16-10) lost the lead for good midway through the first quarter, but pulled within 24-21 with 6:45 left in the third quarter on a pair of layups by Vince LeGrande. The Lions went on a 14-3 run at that point and never led by less than 11 the rest of the way.

“We didn't (fullcourt)press them, but we began to pressure the ball harder,” C-L coach Joe Ferguson said. “Once we saw they weren't handling the ball as well as we thought, we got up in their faces a little bit.”

Kolton Stiglitz paced C-L with 14 points and 10 rebounds. But the ringleader of that pressure was senior point guard RJ Laugand, who had 13 points, 10 assists, eight rebounds and six steals.

“That point guard is right up there with any we've played against this year — and we've played some good ones,” Long said.

The Lions continued to play at a frenetic pace, even with the game well in hand in the fourth quarter. C-L's lead peaked at 54-36 with 2:04 remaining.

“RJ likes to get up and down the floor because he knows he can do it,” Ferguson said. “Our other guys have adapted to that style.

“There's a fine line between playing your game and slowing things up because you've got the lead. I didn't want our kids to get out of rhythm.”

Clarion-Limestone dominated the game despite losing 6-foot-6 forward Dan Callen to a sprained ankle late in the first quarter.

Callen averages 12 points and eight rebounds per game. He scored six points in the opening quarter.

“I hated to lose one of our big kids against their size,” Ferguson said. “But our kids' intensity seemed to go up a notch or two when Danny got hurt.”

Noah Rankin came off the bench to score 14 points and grab six boards for the Lions.

LeGrande and Tristan Newcamp paced CWNC with 13 points each. But the Trojans struggled offensively most of the night.

“Like I said, we wanted to be patient and play this game at a more deliberate pace,” Long said. “In doing so, we kinda deep-sixed our perimeter shooting game.”

The Trojans sank just three of 17 shots from beyond the arc. Clarion-Limestone had a 40-30 rebounding edge as no Trojan had more than five boards. Timon Gribbin did have five steals in the loss.

“Getting the ball inside to LeGrande is where we wanted to go, but their defense collapsed down on him and strangled that off,” Long said.

C-L managed to hit just one of 12 shots from 3-point range itself.

But it didn't matter.

“We pride ourselves on defense and that's what won us this game,” Ferguson said.

CW NORTH CATHOLIC 45

Tom Braun 0-1 2-3 2, Tristan Newcamp 6-13 0-0 13, Timon Gribben 1-7 0-0 3, Vince LeGrande 6-9 1-3 13, Ken Fukon 0-4 3-6 3, Chris Goetz 0-2 2-2 2, Jake Matschner 1-5 0-0 3, Isiah Harvin 0-0 0-0 0, Robert Schad 2-2 2-5 6, Ray Stroud 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 16-44 10-19 45.

CLARION-LIMESTONE 60

RJ Laugand 4-12 5-6 13, Josh Kahle 1-5 0-0 2, Jesse Pezzuti 4-12 0-1 9, Kolton Stiglitz 7-14 0-0 14, Dan Callen 3-5 0-0 6, Noah Rankin 5-12 4-4 14, Devin Beers 0-0 0-0 0, Bailey Whren 0-0 0-0 0, Nate Forrest 0-0 0-0 0, Travis Aites 0-0 0-0 0, Cesar Lopez 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 25-61 9-11 60.

CW North Cath. 10 7 12 16 — 45

Cl-Limestone15 9 16 20 — 60

3-point goals: Newcamp, Gribben, Matschner; Pezzuti