Gremlins race past Coudersport
KARNS CITY — Karns City nearly bucketed 50 points before Coudersport reached 10. The Falcons’ leading scorer could manage a mere two buckets.
So was the tale of the teams’ District 9 Class 2A boys basketball quarterfinal. The Gremlins (18-6) wound up crushing visiting Coudy, 58-17.
The defensive allowance was Karns City’s lowest this year. The offensive showing was it’s second-highest, topped only by the team’s 76-32 win over Forest Area on Feb. 11. Most importantly, maybe, it was the rebound the Gremlins needed after last Friday’s narrow KSAC tournament loss.
“I thought we came out and we did a lot of good things,” Karns City coach Zach Kepple said. “If you look at the game versus North Clarion, we didn’t come out strong. We were slow to start. I thought we came out strong tonight.
“We stuck to the game plan, we got to the basket, knocked down some shots early (and) shot really well in the first half.”
In the opening frame, sophomore Luke Cramer and junior Micah Rupp got the ball rolling for the Gremlins, pouring in 14 combined points.
“We had a lot of guys scoring tonight, which was really positive,” Kepple said. “Taite (Beighley) may not have scored as much as he typically does, but he did a great job facilitating, looking for open guys, and limiting turnovers.”
Beighley notched two assists and a pair of steals not long into the first quarter, helping the Gremlins build what would be an insurmountable 16-2 advantage in the first eight minutes.
Seven different players scored for Karns City in the second. Beighley, senior Cole Sherwin, and junior Braden Grossman poured in threes and the hosts continued to stifle the Falcons’ offense. The visitors shot shot 6-for-39 (15.3%) overall.
“We’ve been pretty good defensively most of the year,” Kepple said. “We played a zone tonight, so I thought we did a good job of communicating with that. We played with some energy early.”
Coudersport (11-12) missed on its first seven shots out of the halftime break, its lone make coming seconds before the buzzer sounded on the third period. Meanwhile, the Gremlins grabbed seven offensive boards and created extra chances to add to their 34-7 intermission lead.
“They did a really good job in that 3-2,” Falcons coach Scott Easton said. “They didn’t let us penetrate and they defended our outside shots. They were able to absolutely dictate the tempo of the game.
“We came in (and) we were really going to look to run our transition. Get the ball and go with it. We were unable to get any success with it.”
COUDERSPORT 17
Brady Streich 2 1-2 5, Christian Furman 1 1-2 4, Garrett Kellert 1 1-2 3, LT Myers 1 0-1 2, Mason Roessner 1 0-0 2, Logan Ruter 0 1-2 1. Totals: 6 4-9 17.
KARNS CITY 58
Luke Cramer 4 3-4 14, Micah Rupp 6 2-2 14, Luke Garing 5 1-2 11, Jacob Callihan 2 3-4 7, Cole Sherwin 2 0-0 5, Taite Beighley 1 0-0 3, Braden Grossman 1 0-0 3, Zach Kelly 1 0-0 2. Totals: 22 9-12 58.
Coudersport 2 5 5 5 — 17
Karns City 16 18 14 11 — 58
3-point goals: Coudersport 1 (Furman); Karns City 6 (Cramer 3, Sherwin, Beighley, Grossman)
