FOXBURG — Allan Eaton had a 102-degree fever.

Blayne McGuirk had eight stitches above his left eye.

Josh Austin had just recovered from a bout of mononucleosis.

The A-C Valley boys basketball team picked a bad time to feel less than 100 percent

Even if Eaton, McGuirk and Austin had been healthy, it probably wouldn't have mattered much.

Keystone (16-8) came out with red-hot shooting in the first quarter and put the game away in the fourth quarter by hitting 18-of-20 free throws to sting No. 1 seed A-C Valley 57-36 in the second round of the District 9 Class A playoffs Monday night.

"(Eaton) would have had to be a (heck) of a lot better to beat that team tonight," said A-C Valley coach Jim Marron. "We just had some bad situations at the end of the season. But we lost because Keystone played a great game."

The Panthers hit 8-of-12 shots from the floor in the first quarter to build a 22-7 lead.

Meanwhile, with Eaton laboring, A-C Valley could find little rhythm at either end of the floor.

"We made too many mistakes, and they didn't," Marron said. "That's the bottom line. They didn't miss anything and we played poor defense."

Still, the Falcons managed to crawl back into the game in the third quarter, slicing the Keystone lead from 14 points to seven.

A-C Valley was as close as seven midway through the fourth quarter when things began to unravel again.

Forced to foul, the Panthers stepped to the line and buried free throw after free throw.

Ben Marchand was particularly deadly, hitting 10-of-11 free throws in the final period. He finished with 19 points to lead all scorers.

Keystone coach Greg Heath smiled when told what his team shot from the foul line.

"That's not bad," he said. "That's acceptable."

What wasn't acceptable was A-C Valley's effort from the field and the line.

The Falcons shot 25 percent from the floor and a shade more than 50 percent from the stripe.

It added up to a 100 percent loss.

The fact that A-C Valley hadn't played for more than a week affected the Falcons, both coaches said.

"I don't think it hurt us as bad as we played," Marron said.

Heath said it probably hurt the Falcons.

"I'm sure that played into it a little bit," Heath said. "They were a little bit rusty."

Eaton led the Falcons with 12 points. McGuirk and Reed Terwilliger each added nine.

It was a tough way to end a season with such promise.

A-C Valley stormed through the regular season, going undefeated in the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference and was 21-1 heading into the KSAC title game.

But the Falcons lost to North Clarion, then saw the abrupt end of their season Monday.

A-C Valley hasn't won a playoff game since the 2005-06 season, dropping its last three postseason contests.

Still, Marron said this season was more than just this loss.

"We can't define our whole season based on this game," Marron said.

KEYSTONE 57Ben Marchand 3-9 12-14 19, Brett Zuck 3-5 4-4 10, Dan Reed 3-4 3-4 9, Lexan Montana 4-6 0-0 11, Nick Bowser 3-8 0-0 6, Ben Wolbert 1-3 0-0 2, Mitch Rearick 0-1 0-0 0, Steve Krause 0-0 0-0 0, Logan Daugherty 0-0 0-0 0, Zach Rusnak 0-0 0-0 0, Ben Hogue 0-0 0-0 0, Seth McCleary 0-0 0-0 0, Corbin Summerville 0-0 0-0 0.

Totals: 17-36 19-22 57.

A-C VALLEY 36Blayne McGuirk 3-10 2-2 9, Matt Bartley 2-9 0-0 4, Reed Terwilliger 3-8 3-6 9, Allan Eaton 4-10 4-6 12, Josh Austin 0-4 1-2 1, Joe Kaufman 0-1 1-2 1, Cole Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Ryan Bartley 0-0 0-1 0, Alex Logue 0-0 0-0 0, Zach Gates 0-0 0-2 0, Brody Irwin 0-0 0-0 0.

Totals: 12-42 11-21 36.

Keystone 22 4 9 22—57A-C Valley 7 5 16 8—363-point goals: Keystone 4 (Marchand, Montana 3); A-C Valley 1 (McGuirk).