CHERRY TWP — Earning a bid in the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference championship game wasn't wearing on Dave Markel's mind.

The Karns City boys basketball team couldn't control if it won the KSAC South. The Gremlins could control if Moniteau made the playoffs.

“We just wanted to beat Moniteau. They are our rivals,” Markel said. “We really didn't think about that (winning the division). We've been in big games before and wanted to come out with a W.”

Markel scored the Gremlins' first eight points and Karns City picked up a 49-35 KSAC South road win over Moniteau Wednesday night.

Redbank Valley also beat Keystone to win the division title. The Gremlins (14-7, 8-2) finished in a tie for first place with the Bulldogs, but Redbank Valley had the tiebreaker.

Karns City had more losses against KSAC North opponents (two) than Redbank Valley did (one).

“Our focus was taking care of business and doing what we need to do to get to the KSAC Championship game,” Karns City coach Chris Bellis said. “As far as I'm concerned the conference championship is more about what you do over the course of the season. I'm pretty proud of what we did over the course of the season with an 8-2 record in the KSAC South.”

Moniteau coach Jerrod Markle said after the game the Warriors would have entered the Class AA playoffs had they won.

For the first few minutes, it looked like Moniteau (7-14, 4-6) was on the right track.

Mark Kimmel, Cody Skiver and Jake Fullerton scored baskets to get the Warriors out to a 6-0 lead.

“I thought all five of us did a good job on the glass,” Markle said. “We rebounded really well in the first quarter. We didn't give up second-chance points.”

Still without a point with 2:36 left in the first quarter, Markel started to heat up.

After scoring on a jumper in transition, Markel followed that with two 3-pointers to put Karns City ahead for good, 8-6, with 1:20 left in the first quarter.

“I felt like I was going to have a decent game,” said Markel, who finished with 13 points. “I thought once I made that first shot I gave the team a burst of energy and helped everyone out.”

The Gremlins rode that momentum to a 17-15 halftime lead and started to pull away at the end of the third quarter.

Karns City's run started after Moniteau's Aaron Marterella made a layup to cut the lead to 22-21 with 2:07 left in the third.

Karns City responded with a 6-0 run and used its strong defense and slowed the tempo on offense to seal the game.

The Gremlins focused on stopping James Bair, who scored 28 points in the team's first meeting. Bair finished with seven points on 1 of 15 shooting.

“I thought things went south when they took the air out of the ball,” Markle said. “That got to us a little bit. We got a little frustrated, but we battled through the whole game at least.”

Logan Moroney, who finished with 10 points and 12 rebounds, recorded a double-double for the Gremlins. Karns City's Tyler Kepple finished with a game-high 14 points.

Kimmel led Moniteau with 12 points.

While the Gremlins won't get to play for the KSAC title Friday, they will get some extra time to rest before the playoffs start.

“We just talked about getting refocused for the playoffs and recharging the batteries,” Bellis said. “We're going to take it one game at a time and when we find out who our next opponent is, we'll focus on them.”

KARNS CITY 49

Dave Olszack 3 0-0 6, Ethan Conto 0 0-0 0, Tyler Kepple 6 0-0 14, Logan Moroney 1 8-12 10, Dan Filges 0 0-0 0, Dalton Callihan 1 0-0 2, Dave Markel 5 0-1 13, Nathan Weckerly 0 2-2 2, Christian Turner 0 0-0 0, Dakota Mohney 1 0-1 2, Brendan Waltman 0 0-0 0, Brandon Belles 0 0-0 0, Brad Bowser 0 0-0 0. Totals: 18 10-16 49.

MONITEAU 35

Mark Kimmel 6 0-0 12, Jake Fullerton 1 0-2 2, Cody Skiver 3 2-4 10, James Bair 1 5-6 7, Zack Jewart 0 0-0 0, Aaron Marterella 2 0-1 4, Derek Boben 0 0-0 0. Totals: 13 7-13 35.

Karns City 10 7 9 23 — 49

Moniteau9 6 6 14 — 35

3-point goals: Karns City 5 (Markel 3, Kepple 2); Moniteau 2 (Skiver 2)

Next: Karns City at District 9 Class AA playoffs