Lady Crusaders defeat North Clarion to advance to D9 1A title game
KANE – The Elk County Catholic Lady Crusaders are headed to the District 9 1A girls' championship game following a 51-31 win over North Clarion on Tuesday evening in Kane. North Clarion put up a good fight early, but ECC head an eight-point lead at the half and continued to pull away from there.
“I think it was a good effort,” said ECC head coach Ken Pistner. “We threw it away a few times early, but we corrected that ship pretty early and I don't think it affected us the rest of the game. I thought our effort was good again tonight. I thought we took excellent shots again tonight. There are times you come into these games and take the first shot available and start chucking them up. All of our threes were on inside out ball reversals. We looked inside. We just did all the little things. We didn't shoot that great tonight, but we shot well enough to get the win.”
Lucy Klawuhn led ECC with 15 points, and Emily Mourer was also in double figures with 10.
Maria Bauer led North Clarion with 10 points.
ECC opened the game on a five-point run as Mourer headed to the foul line 16 seconds in and made both shots. Sami Straub followed that up with a three to make it 5-0 with 6:40 still to play in the opening quarter.
After that, North Clarion came charging back, with Bauer making a pair of foul shots and Madison McFarland getting on the board with her first two of the night to trim ECC's lead to 5-4. A bucket by Mourer briefly put the Lady Crusaders back up by three, 7-4, but a pair of twos by NC's Lauren Lutz gave North Clarion their first lead of the game 8-7.
A bucket by Tori Newton with 1:25 to go in the quarter put ECC back up by one, 9-8, but North Clarion ended the frame with a fourpoint run by Bauer to lead by three, 12-9, after the first eight minutes of regulation.
Mourer and Bauer traded twos early in the second quarter, and then everything changed after
ECC called a timeout with 6:08 remaining in the half, and then the Lady Crusaders' offense took off on a nine-point run, retaking the lead for good in the process.
“We just changed how we attacked their zone,” Pistner said of what transpired during the timeout. “We tried to attack it from the baseline a little more. We got some really nice looks, and we put a little more pressure on them defensively and got them to turn the ball over a little bit more.”
The run opened with a three by Klawuhn, and then Sydney Alexander got on the board with a three. After Klawuhn went one-fortwo from the foul line, Mourer ended the run with another layup, and ECC led 20-14 with 3:25 still to play in the quarter.
Following another two by Lutz for North Clarion, Newton and Klawuhn combined for five points for ECC, with Newton making a layup and Klawuhn draining another three. Ainsley
Hartle went one-for-two from the foul line for North Clarion with 35 seconds to go, and the teams headed into the break with the Lady Crusaders leading 2517.
The second half got underway with Newton at the foul line 46 seconds into the third quarter for the Lady Crusaders. Following a Hartle two, ECC went on an eight-point run, with Alexander scoring five points on a three and a two, and Klawuhn hitting another three.
Emma McFarland put two points on the board for North Clarion, but Klawuhn answered with a threepoint play for ECC.
Following a pair of foul shot by Madison McFarland, Newton and Hartle traded twos to end the frame with the Lady Crusaders up by 14, 39-25.
A bucket by Bauer made it a 12-point game 20 seconds into the fourth quarter, but twos by Klawuhn and Newton stretched ECC's advantage to 16 points, 43-27, with 4:53 left in the game.
Following a two by Lutz, the Lady Crusaders went on a six-point run on twos by Mourer, Straub, and Sarah Hasselman.
Both teams put two points on the board in the final 50 seconds, with Gracee Breindel making a bucket for the Lady Crusaders in between one-for-two showings from the foul line by NC's Brooke Steinman and Jadyn Reisinger.
The game ended with the Lady Crusaders winning by 20, 51-31.
ECC will now face top seeded Otto-Eldred in the D9 1A championship game on Saturday at Clarion University.
Otto rolled to a 61-40 win over fourth seeded DCC in Tuesday's other semifinal.
North Clarion 31 Madison McFarland 1-0-2-2-4, Maria Bauer 4-0-2-2-10, Emma McFarland 1-0-0-0-2, Ainsley Hartle 2-0-1-2-5, Lauren Lutz 4-0-0-0-8, Akeela Greenawalt 0-00-0-0, Jadyn Reisinger 0-0-1-2-1, Kyler Freeman 0-0-0-0-0, Kaylee Castner 0-0-0-0-0, Ava Best 0-0-0-0-0, Brooke Steinman 0-0-1-2-1. Totals 12-0-7-10-31.
Elk Catholic 51 Sami Straub 1-1-02-1, Tori Newton 4-01-2-9, Sydney Alexander 1-2-0-2-8, Lucy Klawuhn 2-3-2-3-15, Emily Mourer 4-0-2-210, Kiri Emmert 0-00-0-0, Gracee Breindel 1-0-0-0-2, Sarah Hasselman 1-0-0-0-2, Alexa Chamberlin 0-0-0-0-0, Mya Pistner 0-0-0-0-0, Payton Newton 0-0-0-00. Totals 14-6-5-11-51.
Score by quarters NC 12 5 8 6 31 ECC 9 1614 12 51