End Of The Road
CORAOPOLIS — One big obstacle stood out when Our Lady of the Sacred Heart boys basketball coach Mike Rodriguez looked at Karns City.
Nathan Waltman.
“We knew we didn't have the size to match up with that kid,” Rodriguez said. “He's a tremendous athlete.
“The best way to stop him from hurting us was to stop them from getting him the ball. We had to keep the ball out on the perimeter.”
Or take it away from the Gremlins completely.
OLSH (22-0) forced 22 turnovers in the first three quarters before calling off the pressure in rolling to a 75-45 PIAA Class 2A quarterfinal victory over Karns City (23-3) Saturday at the Angela Activities Center.
“They did a great job of denying us inside,” KC coach Chris Bellis said. “When we did get it in there, those passes were contested much more than we're used to.
“We never did get settled into our offense.”
Waltman did finish with 21 points and seven rebounds. He was 9-of-10 shooting from the field.
“When they got it to him, we couldn't stop him,” Rodriguez admitted.
But the Dragons had too much.
“They are undefeated and (three-time) WPIAL champions for a reason,” Bellis said.
The Gremlins stuck around for a little more than a quarter. A Chase Beighley trey pulled KC within 25-20 with seven minutes left in the half.
The Dragons answered with a 15-0 run, holding the Gremlins scoreless for more than six minutes. By the time Waltman canned a layup with 40 seconds left in the half to end the drought, KC trailed 40-20.
OLSH outscored KC 45-18 in the middle two quarters to put the game away.
Dante Spadafora, approaching 1,800 points in his career, led the Dragons with 23 points, five steals and four assists. Jake DiMichele contributed 20 points, five rebounds and four steals.
Dawson Summers had 10 points and six rebounds while B.J. Vaughn came off the bench to score 10 points. Many of OLSH's points came in transition.
“It all starts with defense for us,” Rodriguez said. “Our trap forces turnovers and generates quick offense.”
Beighley scored 12 points for Karns City, hitting three treys. He had five rebounds and three assists as well.
He ends his high school career as the Gremlins' all-time leading scorer with 1,697 points. Waltman had approximately 1,100.
“We have to replace 2,700 points from those guys, but they were our only two seniors,” Bellis said. “We've got six guys — Cole Sherwin, Luke Cramer, Taite Beighley, Luke Garing, Micah Rupp, Eric Booher — who played a lot of basketball this year.
“We stayed with (OLSH) for a quarter, but we made too many mistakes. We knew we'd have to play mistake-free to hang with them and that didn't happen.”
KARNS CITY 45Eric Booher 0-2 0-0 0, Cole Sherwin 0-1 0-0 0, Taite Beighley 0-0 0-0 0, Micah Rupp 1-3 0-1 2, Chase Beighley 4-12 1-3 12,. Luke Cramer 2-6 0-0 5, Luke Garing 1-3 1-2 3, Nathan Waltman 9-10 3-4 21, Jacob Callihan 1-1 0-0 2, Braden Grossman 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 18-40 5-10 45.
OLSH 75Jake DiMichele 8-17 1-2 20, Rocco Spadafora 2-4 0-0 5, Mark Polar 1-1 1-3 3, B.J. Vaughn 4-6 0-0 10, Dante Spadafora 10-13 2-2 23, Kevin Wilson 0-0 0-0 0, Dawson Summers 3-3 4-4 10, Bryson Kirschner 0-2 4-4 4, Rocco Coladonato 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 28-47 12-15 75.Karns City 16 8 10 11 — 45OLSH20 20 25 10 — 753-point goals: C.Beighley 3, Cramer; DiMichele 3, R.Spadafora, Vaughn 2, D.Spadafora
