North Clarion Depth on Full Display in Win Over A-C Valley

Chris Rossetti

Chris Rossetti

Published December 29, 2017 5:20 am
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FRILLS CORNERS, Pa. (D9Sports) — One of the keys to the success of the North Clarion boys’ basketball team this year is its depth, and that depth was on full display Thursday night in a 69-29 win over A-C Valley on the second day of the North Clarion Holiday Tournament.

(Photo of Nathan Banner. Photo by Paul Burdick. Check out more of Burdick’s work here)

Nine different Wolves scored in the game with all nine scoring during a 23-7 second quarter that helped North Clarion blow open a two-point, 14-12, contest at the end of a quarter.

“It’s great,” Nathan Banner, who led North Clarion with 14 points and nine rebounds, said of the depth. “It’s almost like playing with an AAU team, honestly. When everyone is on, it’s a good team win.”

Banner’s coach, Andy Bish, believed that depth wore A-C Valley down after the Falcons put on a strong first-quarter display.

“I think the major thing is when you started to see the depth in our 11-man rotation start to take over,” Bish said. “They got a little tired, and we kept the pressure on.”

Bish is grateful to have so many different players who can contribute.

“It’s awesome,” Bish said. “Nathan is leading us in points and stuff, but when I go down through the scoresheet, I am seeing 11, 10, seven, eight, six, four (points) on a continuous basis. It’s awesome to play with. It’s fun. Getting everyone involved is a joy to do.”

The game turned on a dime with the Falcons going from being down two, 16-14, following a pair of Dalton Callander free throws with 6:39 to play in the first half to being down 17, 31-14, with 3:31 to play in the half following an old-school 3-point play by Korey Mills that ended a 15-0 North Clarion run that featured scoring from six different players including six points from Mills.

“The key to it was our speed and our defense,” Bish said. “Once we get in our press and moving around in that press, we can score a lot of points in a hurry if guys are hustling. They did that tonight.”

CHRIS’ THOUGHTS

1. North Clarion’s Pressure Defense Was Impressive

It took the Wolves eight minutes and change to get the press working but when they did things drastically changed. North Clarion forced 12 A-C Valley turnovers in the second quarter and 22 in the middle two quarters while outscoring the Falcons 43-11 in that time frame. Twenty-one of those 43 points were directly a result of the turnovers.

“We came back in the huddle (after the first quarter) and we just wanted to push the tempo a little more,” Banner said. “We knew we needed to pick up our defense and limit our turnovers. Our defense leads to our offense which just allows us to put more pressure (on).”

Listen to Banner’s thoughts on the victory.

Bish believed it was all about the energy level on defense.

“We picked up the energy level after the first quarter and got the defense going,” Bish said.

2. It’s Not Often You See a Game Go from Two Points After a Quarter to the Mercy Rule

I’ll be honest. After watching the first quarter I thought we were going to see a good game. A-C Valley showed athleticism and an ability to pressure the basketball. That was giving North Clarion some trouble with the Wolves turning the ball over seven times in the first quarter. Unfortunately for the Falcons, it wasn’t sustainable. As they tired and North Clarion’s defense led to offense the A-C Valley defense wasn’t able to keep up managing to force just six turnovers in the middle two quarters. And once North Clarion made its run, A-C Valley had no answer with the Falcons falling to score back-to-back points until early in the fourth quarter when Tanner Merwin hit a 3-pointer and Callander followed up with a free throw for a modest 4-0 spurt against the North Clarion reserves.

“We did a good job of stopping dribble penetration tonight,” Bish said. “When guys did get past us, we did a good job with weak-side help sliding over.”

3. North Clarion Must Finish Better if It is Going to be an Elite Team

While it didn’t make a difference in this game, the Wolves left a lot of points on the rim with numerous missed layups, many of which came after creating the turnover. That is fine against teams that North Clarion is better than, but as we saw in the Wolves loss to Clarion-Limestone before Christmas, those missed points add up and are costly in games against better squads.

“It’s something we talk about all the time,” Bish said. “We have high goals this year. We can’t be missing shots like that against the top teams in the league. It’s going to come back to bite you. We have the pads out every night at practice, kind of beating on them to try to convert those better.”

4. The Mills Cousins Continue to Develop into Strong Players off the Bench for North Clarion

Part of the reason North Clarion is able to have so many guys contribute is that there are talented players on the bench that could start for most teams. Two of those players are cousins, Kyle and Korey Mills.

Korey is a 6-foot-1 junior guard with a sweet stroke — he hit a pair of 3-pointers in the game Thursday while scoring 12 points — while Kyle is a 6-foot-7 center who goes at least 250 pounds. And he has developed a nice game around the rim. He finished with six points in the contest.

“Both of them have improved tremendously from last year,” Bish said. “They are getting a lot more minutes and the confidence is building. Korey is knocking down the outside, and Kyle is getting comfortable inside going after the boards and putting them back.”

The presence of Kyle with his height is creating matchup problems for other teams, and I look for North Clarion to find ways to use that to their advantage as the year goes on.

‘It’s definitely one of our hidden ‘X’ factors that we have,” Bish said. “He’s a such a size factor in this league that not many teams can go up against that. They are going to have to double team that, and when they do, it’s going to open up our outside game.”

5. The First Quarter Turnovers Frustrated Bish

The seven giveaways in the first quarter were a point of frustration for Bish, who believes when the Wolves turn the ball over it is more on them than the other team.

“The turnovers are something I have been telling them about and telling them about,” Bish said. “It always gets frustrating because a lot of the turnovers I feel we create ourselves It’s not the defense doing it. If we take care of the ball and play defense like that, we are pretty good.”

THE OUTCOME

North Clarion is now 7-1 on the year and has won three in a row since the loss a week ago Wednesday to C-L. A-C Valley fell to 4-5 as the Falcons continued their win-one-lose-one pattern after Wednesday’s victory over Forest Area.

THE ROAD AHEAD

North Clarion hosts Venango Catholic Jan. 3 before traveling to Union Jan. 5 and returning home to face Karns City Jan. 9. The Wolves then have a key KSAC crossover game at Keystone Jan. 12.

A-C Valley starts the new year at Karns City Jan. 3 before playing a pair of very winnable games against Forest Area at home Jan. 5 and at Venango Catholic Jan. 9. The Falcons then host Clarion Jan. 12.

NORTH CLARION 69, A-C VALLEY 29

Score by Quarters

A-C Valley 12 7 4 6 — 29
N. Clarion 14 23 20 12 — 69

A-C VALLEY — 29

Brendan Price 1 0-0 2, Jeff Ginn 4 0-0 8, Russ Carr 1 0-0 2, Dalton Callander 3 4-5 10, Levi Orton 1 0-0 2, Carson Snyder 0 0-0 0, Tanner Merwin 1 0-0 3, Caleb Penny 0 0-0 0, Eli Penny 0 0-0 0, Brady Cullen 0 1-2 1, Jude Burkett 0 1-2 1, Cole Dehart 0 0-0 0. Totals 11 6-9 29.

NORTH CLARION — 69

Keeven Weaver 4 0-2 8, Nathan Banner 6 2-2 14, Zander Hargenrader 4 0-0 10, Sam Minich 0 0-0 0, Jesse Schmader 3 0-0 6, Korey Mills 4 2-3 12, Matson Higgins 0 0-0 0, Noah Myers 1 0-0 2, Logan Minich 2 1-2 5, Kyle Mills 3 0-1 6, Tyler McCord-Wolbert 2 2-3 6, Preston Schmader 0 0-0 0, Zyler Hargenrader 0 0-0 0, Devon Walters 0 0-0 0. Totals 29 7-13 69.

Three-pointer: A-C Valley 1 (Merwin). North Clarion 4 (Zander Hargenrader 2, Korey Mills 2).

Rebounds: A-C Valley — 14 offensive, 23 defense, 37 total (Callander 7, Orton 7). North Clarion — 12 offensive, 26 defense, 38 total (Banner 9, Weaver, 5, J. Schmader 5).

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