Closely Contested
KARNS CITY — The Freeport and Karns City boys basketball teams have both been in a fair share of close contests this season.
And both found themselves in another at Karns City Monday night.
Brendan Lynch scored 25 points and Freeport used a 9-0 run to get some breathing room late against Karns City for a 69-64 win.
Freeport is now 4-1 in games decided by five points or less. Meanwhile, Karns City is 2-5.
“We just said late in the game, 'Hey, we're a senior-laden team. We need to keep our composure,'” said Freeport coach Mike Beale. “It was loud here tonight and I thought we did a nice job running our press breaker to break their press at the end.”
Karns City (6-10), though, gave the Yellowjackets (7-7) all they could handle.
Tyler Kepple hit a 3-pointer to give the Gremlins a 56-55 lead with six minutes left in the fourth quarter, but Freeport answered with a run that made it 64-56 with a little more than two minutes remaining.
That swing was enough to send Karns City to another close loss.
The Gremlins dropped a five-point game to Cranberry and a pair of overtime games against A-C Valley and Keystone last week.
“Four in a row now in eight days,” lamented Karns City coach Chris Bellis. “I thought we played well in the second half; that we fought hard in the second half. Unfortunately, we played ourselves into the situation we were in.”
Bellis was referring to a leaky defense that gave up 39 first-half points to Freeport.Of course, the Yellowjackets also did a lot of good things in that stretch, shooting 16-of-28 from the field in the first two quarters.Karns City was just as hot from the floor, scoring 33 points of its own on 12-of-21 shooting.The Gremlins' first 15 points came on 3-pointers.Freeport, though, weathered the storm on the road.“I just told the team on Wednesday we're going to go into another situation like this in Ford City,” Beale said. “It's a close rivalry we have against Ford City and it's nice to have players like Brendan and Robbie Millier and Tony DeVivo who we can turn to in games like this.”Miller added 13 points and freshman Josh Beale also added 13 points for the Yellowjackets.Kepple paced Karns City with 22 points. David Olszak and Andrew Johnston had 12 points apiece for the Gremlins, who now have no margin for error.Karns City must win the final five games of the regular season to make the playoffs.“This team has always had playoffs in its sights,” Bellis said. “I think (playing tough teams in close games) would help our confidence if we make the playoffs.“We've kind of dug ourselves a hole,” Bellis added. “If these games can lead to reaching the playoffs, it would be a good thing.”FREEPORT 69Brendan Lynch 9-16 7-12 25, Robbie Miller 4-8 3-4 13, Josh Beale 6-10 1-3 13, Tony DeVivo 2-2 0-0 4, Zane Geist 1-1 0-0 3, Fred Pastoria 3-6 3-4 9, Ethan McCormick 0-0 0-0 0, Seth Bowser 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 26-45 14-23 69.KARNS CITY 64Andrew Johnston 4-7 4-6 12, David Olszak 4-7 2-4 12, Tyler Kepple 9-14 0-0 22, Nathan Weckerly 1-3 0-0 2, Austin Murray 0-0 0-0 0, Josh Wallace 3-8 0-0 8, Logan Moroney 2-3 2-2 6, Ryan Pfeifer 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 24-44 8-12 64.Freeport 23 16 16 14—69Karns City21 12 17 14—643-point goals: Freeport 3 (Miller 2, Geist). Karns City 8 (Olszak 2, Kepple 4, Wallace 2)Wednesday: Freeport at Ford City; Karns City at Union
