Late run sinks KC in D-9 semifinal
CLARION — It was an eerily similar scene.
After three quarters on Wednesday night, Karns City and Clarion-Limestone were neck and neck. When it came to crunch time, the Lions made the most important push of the night — a 9-2 surge over the final 3:19 that earned them a 47-43 victory.
The stinging District 9 Class 2A semifinal defeat sends the Gremlins (21-5) to the third-place consolation game on Friday night. C-L (23-2) advances to take on Otto-Eldred in the final.
The teams met in the same venue — Clarion University’s Tippin Gymnasium — just 11 days earlier with the KSAC crown on the line. The late going of that one unraveled in the same manner, almost to the exact second the run began.
“We gave the game away,” Karns City coach Zach Kepple said of the rematch. “We didn’t do any of the things that we talked about at halftime to adjust. We got the opportunity at the end to get a defensive rebound to go down and tie it up, and we don’t get a rebound there.”
At that juncture, with nine ticks to go in regulation, the Lions’ Jack Callen missed a pair of free throws that would have extended his team’s three-point lead. His teammate, Jordan Hesdon, came up with the ball, then made one of two from the stripe after being fouled.
Hesdon’s earlier trip to the line, with 2:04 left, gave C-L its first lead since the first quarter.
The Gremlins went 10 of 20 from the floor in the first 16 minutes and at one point in the second frame were on the right side of a dozen-point gap. Seven turnovers in that same quarter came back to bite them.
“We had way too many turnovers tonight,” Kepple said. “We just didn’t play the way we should’ve played tonight … I thought we had effort; I thought our kids played hard. It just was we didn’t do the fine things that you’ve got to do to win a basketball game.”
“The ball wasn’t bouncing our way tonight, necessarily,” Lions coach Joe Ferguson said. “They were knocking shots down. Normally our defense, we’re not letting people get easy looks. We were kind of flat that first half, but the kids just hung in there.
“To be honest, I felt comfortable the whole time … The bottom line is when we are down, they don’t get down on themselves.”
They got up on the offensive end, too, snatching seven second-chance boards in the fourth quarter alone and cashing them in for 11 points.
“I thought we rebounded really well in the first half, but there in the second half, we didn’t — we didn’t do a good job on the glass,” Kepple said.
Compounding mistakes obviously didn’t help. An errant inbounding pass with 37 seconds left and a one-point deficit was the last of four giveaways in the final eight minutes. Karns City had to foul, and Jase Ferguson sank both. The Gremlins wouldn’t score again.
“We just didn’t answer,” Kepple said. “We went to the basket like we wanted to, just didn’t knock down the shots. We’ve got to be better late in the game.”
They’ll get the chance to atone for the loss in a neutral-site clash with Ridgway, which lost to Otto-Eldred in the first leg of the Wednesday doubleheader. The time and location for that matchup are yet to be announced.
“It’s a short turn-around,” Kepple said. “We had a week to prepare for this game, then we have to turn around and play Ridgway. It’s way too quick of a turn-around, but we’ll be prepared for them … We know their style of basketball.”
KARNS CITY 43
Micah Rupp 7 0-1 14, Taite Beighley 4 1-2 10, Hobie Bartoe 4 0-0 10, Jacob Callihan 2 0-2 4, Braden Grossman 1 0-0 3, Shane Peters 0 2-2 2. Totals: 18 3-7 43.
CLARION-LIMESTONE 47
Jordan Hesdon 3 7-8 13, Jase Ferguson 3 2-2 9, Rylie Klingensmith 4 0-0 8, Alex Painter 2 0-0 5, Jack Craig 2 0-0 5, Ty Rankin 2 0-0 4, Jack Callen 1 1-4 3. Totals: 17 10-14 47.
Karns City 13 12 9 9 — 43
Clarion-Limestone 7 13 10 17 — 47
3-point goals: Karns City 4 (Bartoe 2, Grossman, Beighley); Clarion-Limestone 3 (Ferguson, Painter, Craig)
Friday: Karns City vs. Ridgway in District 9 Class 2A third-place game, time and location to be announced
