Karns City tops Oil City in odd contest
KARNS CITY — A positive result doesn’t normally follow when a team nearly goes scoreless for a full frame, fails to crack 20 points until the fourth quarter, and gives the basketball away 18 times.
Karns City’s home matchup with Oil City wasn’t a normal one, though.
The Gremlins’ girls turned away their guests by a 33-13 final, allowing them a mere four buckets in a staunch defensive effort.
“That’s pretty good defense,” Karns City coach Steve Andreassi said. “Our woes were on the other end. We had all kinds of opportunities, all kinds of shots, poor selection sometimes. We’ve still got a problem with handling the basketball ... Our thought process is, we panic. We could’ve easily scored 45, 50 points in that game by making the shots.”
The Oilers (3-1), who were coming off a 67-point effort against Brookville their last time out, found themselves trailing by nine at the end of the opening period. They didn’t knock a shot down until over 10 minutes had passed.
The speed of the game was too much for them, as they gave the ball away 16 times in as many minutes and 29 times in all. Oil City coach Jake Stevens feels that it will be a good primer for upcoming tests.
“We’ve got a couple of tough games coming up and we’ve got a couple of good teams in our region that try to force the pace on us like that,” he said. “We’re not really a fast-paced kind of team, but we tried to pretend to be one today. That’s just not our style.”
The Gremlins (3-2) shot 6-for-31 (19.3%) in the first three quarters.
“Our mindset, we were a little scattered offensively,” sophomore guard Chloe Fritch said. “We could not make a shot or a layup. We just kind of relied on our defense and having them have those up-in-the-air, 50/50 balls for the turnovers.”
Being used to a faster tempo helped their case, of course.
“It led to a lot of our turnovers and it’s just stuff we’ve got to learn how to handle,” said Stevens, adding that his side played Friday and didn’t have gym time Saturday to gameplan. “We’ve got to be adaptable to it and we’ve got to learn how to control the pace and not let it control us.”
The offense looked like it would be on point when Fritch got on the board three seconds in. She finished with nine points after also singing the national anthem prior to tip-off.
“I love to sing,” said Fritch, who sung in front of a crowd at Pittsburgh Pirates game when she was in second grade. “Since I was little, I’ve always sang for the school. It’s just kind of cool being the person instead of standing for it, singing for it. I really enjoy it.”
After Nicki Petra’s make pulled the Oilers to within six, Karns City went on a 14-0 run over the last 7:24 to close it out. There’s still work to be done on that side of the court, Andreassi said.
“We’ve definitely got to work on our offense,” he explained. “It’s the cerebral part, it’s the mindset part. We’ve got to take care of the ball and finishing the shots will come.”
Sophomore guard Brooklynn Taylor poured in a game-high 11 points, including one of her team’s two treys. Fritch made the other.
“We knew that we had work ahead of us,” Fritch said. “We’re not at our full potential at all, but we know there’s a bright light in our future and, little-by-little, we’re going to work on it. I know we can be a great team.”
OIL CITY 13
Wenner 2 0-0 4, Liederbach 1 1-2 3, Stahl 0 3-4 3, Petra 1 0-0 2, Marczak 0 1-4 1. Totals: 4 5-10 13.
KARNS CITY 33
Brooklynn Taylor 4 2-4 11, Chloe Fritch 2 4-6 9, Shae Pistorius 2 2-2 6, Emma Dailey 1 1-4 3, Naomi Venesky 1 0-0 2, Hanna Dailey 1 0-0 2. Totals: 11 9-16 33.
Oil City 2 7 2 2 — 13
Karns City 11 2 6 14 — 33
3-point goals: Karns City 2 (Taylor, Fritch)
Friday: Clarion-Limestone at Karns City
