CLARION — The game was a microcosm of Karns City’s season.

Fits and starts. Good stretches and bad.

And ultimately, disappointment.

The Karns City boys basketball team suffered through a disastrous third quarter in which Brockway went on a 10-0 run to break open a tie game. The Gremlins mounted a few runs at the Rovers in the fourth quarter, but fell short Thursday in a 56-47 loss in the first round of the District 9 Class AA playoffs at Clarion High School.

“I felt like we were always on the edge of getting it rolling (this year),” said Karns City coach Chris Bellis. “But we could just never get it going. Even early in tonight’s game, we’re up 10-5 and I think we’re going to get rolling, and the next thing you know it’s 10-12 — they go on a run.”

Karns City (10-12) and Brockway (11-12) played dead even in the first and second quarters and went into the half tied 22-22.

But things unraveled for the Gremlins in the third quarter as Brockway went up 32-22 with a little less than three minutes remaining in the frame before Ian McElroy hit a 3 for Karns City’s first points of the second half.

The Rovers out-scored the Gremlins 16-5 in the third quarter and sent Karns City into scramble mode.

“It’s been our Achilles’ heel all year that we go through periods of time when we don’t score,” Bellis said. “That’s what happened to us tonight.”

Brockway sophomore point guard Carter Adams took over for the Rovers in the second half and the fourth quarter in particular.

Adams scored 10 of his game-high 19 points in the fourth quarter.

He was 8-of-11 from the free throw line in the final eight minutes.

“He’s the guy we wanted at the line late,” said Brockway coach Dave Bennett. “He’s a confident kid.”

Brockway led by as many as 14 points early in the fourth quarter, but Karns City kept clawing its way back to within striking distance thanks to clutch 3-point shooting.

Holden Martin and McElroy both hit a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and each had three in the game.

They helped the Gremlins close to 47-43 with a little more than two minutes remaining.

But that was as close as Karns City got.

“The third quarter was huge,” Bennett said. “Coming in we knew they were a physical, hard-working, scrappy team that could really shoot the ball. And fortunately we had that spurt in the third quarter because we saw them get those 3s going late and we needed every bit of that (third-quarter) run.”

McElroy led the Gremlins with 16 points.

“We know he can score. We look for him to do that. He’s had games when he’s done that this season,” Bellis said. “He’s a junior and hopefully in the future he’ll do that a little more consistently.”

The one thing Bellis said his team did consistently this season was scrap.

“We played hard all year,” Bellis said. “We held opponents under 50 points. I think if you defend and hold people under 50 you should be able to score that many in a high school basketball game. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to score consistently and that’s something we need to work on going forward.”

BROCKWAY 56

Corey Carr 1-3 0-0 2, Hunter Miller 4-5 1-2 9, Jake Wineberg 2-8 1-2 5, Jarrett Esposito 4-9 3-4 11, Carter Adams 4-10 10-16 19, Quade Lundberg 4-7 2-4 10. Totals: 19-42 17-28 56.

KARNS CITY 47

Noah Pollock 1-9 0-0 2, Holden Martin 3-5 0-0 9, Ben Ealy 0-1 0-0 0, Reese Barger 3-10 1-2 9, Chandler Turner 1-4 1-3 3, Jimmy Thompson 0-0 2-2 2, Ian McElroy 5-12 3-5 16, Jacob Friel 3-3 0-0 6, Collin Dunmyre 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 16-44 7-12 47.

Brockway 12 10 16 18 — 56

Karns City12 10 5 20 — 47

3-point goals: Brockway 1 (Adams); Karns City 8 (Martin 3, Barger 2, McElroy 3)