Lady Elkers unable to come back against She-Wolves
TIONESTA – Early Ridgway cold shooting allowed North Clarion (NC) to jump out to an 11-2 lead at the end of the first and 25-11 at the half on their way to a 49-33 District 9 Class A quarterfinal win at NCHS on Thursday.
With five teams advancing from the district to the PIAA tournament, the 13-10 Lady Elkers are still alive to earn a berth for the second-straight season. They'll play seven-seed Clarion (10-14) in the consolation semifinals on Monday at St. Marys High School. On Thursday, the Lady Bobcats were beaten at two-seed Elk County Catholic, 47-28. The 20-4 She-Wolves play the 22-3 Lady Crusaders in the semifinals on Tuesday in Kane (8 p.m.)
Six-seed Ridgway missed their first nine shots from three-point range before Gabby Amacher hit from behind the arc 1:43 into the second quarter, cutting NC's lead to 15-5. After three more long-range misses and four She-Wolves points, Emma Vargas hit for three, cutting the lead to 11. Twenty seconds after the Lady Elker score, Akeela Greenawalt hit one of her two threes and Maria Bauer followed with a three-point play before Jenna Kasmierski's steal and feed to Amacher for a score made it 2510 with 1:31 left. After Kasmierski hit one of two from the line, Ainsley Hartle got loose for a layup ending the first-half scoring.
Amacher hit a three-pointer 1:05 into the third quarter, but NC responded with a 5-0 run before the Lady Elker junior hit for another three starting an 8-0 Ridgway spree. The third period ended with the She-Wolves up 34-22.
Three-seed North Clarion dashed comeback hopes with buckets by Brooke Steinman and Lutz, Greenawalt's second three, and two free throws from Baur. Kasmierski hit two foul shots ending a 3:47 scoring drought making it 43-24. The She-Wolves led by as many as 22 before the Lady Elkers cut the final deficit to 16.
“I think there were nerves early on, and then as they saw the lead growing, we were getting one pass and a shot which is not what we want,” said Ridgway head coach Jay Schreiber when asked about the cold shooting early on. “I'm OK with any threepoint shot as long as we move the ball and are set, but I thought we were rushing a bit, and I don't think we were beating them on the effort early in the game.”
The Lady Elker coach felt his team looked better after the rough start.
“From about the three-minute mark in the second quarter through the third, I thought we beat them in the effort area. We won the third quarter, and while it doesn't do you a lot of good at the end of the game, I think it says something about the girls not giving up.”
Amacher, who hit four threes, finished with a game-high 14. Steinman and Lutz finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Kasmierski had eight, Kristen Ellenberger six, Vargas four, and Grace Bon a foul shot to round out the Ridgway scoring.
While a shot at a first district title since 1989 is dashed, Schreiber's squad will now focus on getting to states for a secondstraight season. They were the fourth-place participant out of D9 last year.
“We just want to get ready for the fight for that fifth seed and see what happens from there but seeing how the girls played after being down by so many, I think they have the mentality and desire to get it.”
Monday's other consolation semifinal pits eight-seed Northern Potter (14-10) at fiveseed Port Allegany (19-4), which lost at 13-11 four-seed DuBois Central Catholic, 54-30.
Before the Lady Crusaders hit the court on Tuesday, topseed 21-2 Otto-Eldred and DCC play at 6:30 p.m. in Kane.
North Clarion 49, Ridgway 33
By Quarter Ridgway
11 33
N. Clarion 11 16 7 15 49
FG-FTM-FTAPoints 2 9 11
Ridgway: Gabby Amacher 5-0-0-14, Jenna Kasmierski 2-4-6-8, Kristen Ellenberger 2-2-2-6, Emma Vargas 1-1-3-4, Grace Bon 0-1-6-1, Sophia Copello 0-0-0-0, Addie Kuleck 0-0-0-0, Melaina Wolfe 0-0-0-0, Bridgett Breindel 0-00-0, Maddy MacAfee 0-0-0-0, Totals 10-915-33.
North Clarion: Brooke Steinman 5-11-11, Lauren Lutz 5-0-0-10, Maria Bauer 2-3-3-7, Akeela Greenawalt 2-1-2-7, Ainsley Hartle 3-0-1-6, Madison McFarland 1-3-45, Emma McFarland 1-0-0-3, Jadyn Reisinger 0-0-0-0, Alexa Carll 0-0-0-0, Ava Best 0-0-0-0, Kyler Freeman 0-0-0-0, Kaylee Castner 0-0-0-0, Totals 19-8-11-49.
Three-pointers: Ridgway 4 – Amacher (4); North Clarion 3 – Greenawalt (2), E. McFarland.