Lady Crusaders repeat
ST. MARYS – Elk County Catholic beat St. Marys 43-34 on Saturday at SMAHS to capture a thirdstraight AML championship while improving to 22-2, heading into the District 9 Class A playoffs as the top seed.
The Lady Crusaders beat the Lady Dutch to win last year's league crown and the past two Elk County Holiday Tournaments. St. Marys, which won one of three against ECC this season, is 19-5 and the two-seed for the upcoming D9 Class playoffs, where they'll face three-seed Clearfield on Thursday at DuBois High School.
Jayssa Snelick scored a game-high 17 points and put the Lady Dutch up 9-5 at the end of the first with a three-pointer. The Lady Crusaders opened the second with a 12-0 run and were up 26-15 at the half.
ECC kept a doubledigit lead until the final frame when two threes by Taylor Gornati made 37-29 with 6:39 left. St. Marys would get no closer.
Syd Alexander, who hit two threes, led Elk Catholic with 11 points. Lucky Klawuhn also had a pair and finished with eight. Mya Pistner also had two from behind the arc to finish with six. Tori Newton, who dominated rebounding, scored seven points, Emily Mourer six, and Sami Straub five points.
"I thought in the first quarter we had a few turnovers that were uncharacteristic," ECC head coach Ken Pistner said to Tyler Kolesar of the Courier Express. "I thought we got up and down the basketball court well, [which] paid dividends in the second and third quarter. I think we got them a little bit tired."
Molly Hansloven scored 10 points, Gornati six, and Maura Caskey hit a free throw for St. Marys.
Playoffs
On Thursday in the quarterfinals, the topseed Lady Crusaders host the winner of Tuesday's nine-seed Austin at eight-seed Otto-Eldred contest.
"We're looking forward to (district playoffs)," Pistner told Kolesar. "We've met three of our goals so far this year — the two league championships (AML, D9) and the Holiday Tournament, and now we're onto the district title. This group's pretty focused."
On Thursday, the two-seed 18-5 Ridgway Lady Elkers will host the winner of Tuesday's 10-seed Northern Potter at the seven-seed Valley game.
Individual: St. Marys:
Oswayo
Elk County Catholic 43, St. Marys 34 1 2 3 4 T
ECC 5 21 10 7 43 SM 9 4 10 11 34
FGFTM-FTA-Points
Elk County Catholic:
Syd Alexander 4-00-11, Lucy Klawuhn 3-0-0-8, Tori Newton 2-3-4-7, Emily Mourer 3-0-0-6, Mya Pistner 2-0-0-6, Sami Straub 1-3-4-5, Payton Newton 0-0-0-0, Gina Geci 0-0-0-0, Grace Breindel 0-0-0-0, Totals 156-8-43.
Jayssa Snelick 6-3-4-17, Molly Hanslovan 4-1-2-10, Taylor Gornati 2-0-0-6, Maura Caskey 0-1-2-1, Alexa Schneider 0-0-00, Totals 12-5-8-34.
Three-pointers:
ECC – Alexander (3), Klawuhn (2), Pistner (2); St. Marys 5 – Sneleick (2), Gornati (2), Hanslovan.