KARNS CITY, Pa. (D9Sports) — Prior to Wednesday’s night’s 59-57 win at Karns City, North Clarion head coach Terry Dreihaup talked about how teams were going out of their way to slow down the She-Wolves do-everything senior Tori Obenrader but how other players were stepping up to fill the points void.
(Photo: Gabby Schmader, North Clarion, who was the Hager Paving Player of the Game Wednesday night)
It was like Dreihaup was a fortune teller, considering Karns City tried to take away Obenrader but that left Gabby Schmader free. And Schmader made the Lady Gremlins pay to the tune of a career-high 20 points, 19 after halftime, including nine straight during a pivotal two-minute stretch in the fourth quarter that saw North Clarion go from being down three, 50-47, to up three, 56-53.
“If there was a game for a sophomore to step up, I guess this was one of the better ones,” Dreihaup said. “She played super. She shot the ball well. She knew they pretty much left here alone and made them pay.”
Schmader, the Hager Paving Player of the Game, who was held to a lone free throw in the first half, kept North Clarion in the game in the third quarter scoring 10 of the She-Wolves 15 points in the frame to keep North Clarion within two, 45-43, at the end of the quarter despite an incredible quarter from Karns City’s Emily Hegedus, who netted 13 of her game-high 30 points during the eight minutes immediately following halftime.
But as good as Schmader was in the third quarter, few could forsee what she was about to do in the fourth quarter.
With North Clarion down 50-47, Schmader put the She-Wolves within a point with a basket with 4:31 to play. She then tied the game at 50 by hitting a free-throw with 4:06 left and then her 3-pointer, one of two she hit in the game, put North Clarion ahead, 53-50, for the first time since the mid-point of the third quarter with 3:21 left.
Then, after Alyssa Stitt, who had 13 points, including three 3-pointers for Karns City, had re-tied the game at 53 with a triple of her own with 2:57 to go, Schmader hit another three with 2:45 left to put North Clarion up for good, 56-53.
“I knew we weren’t getting a lot of stuff on the inside and they were leaving me open,” Schmader said. “So (coach) told me to keep shooting and that is what I kept doing.”
For Schmader, it marked her second consecutive game with a career high in points after she netted 15 in a win over Union Saturday.
“I feel like this is going to be my year, honestly, and for my team,” Schmader said. “I feel like we are doing our best, and that is what I like.”
Listen to more of Schmader’s thoughts on the win.
While Schmader was torching Karns City, no one could blame Lady Gremlins head coach Steve Andreassi for trying to contain Obenrader — the senior still finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds although both numbers were below her season averages of 24.8 points and 15 rebounds per game coming into the game.
“No. 12 (Schmader) stepped her game up for sure,” Andreassi said. “Who would you want to beat you, 12 or 24 (Obenrader)? We did a good job on everyone but 12 did her job. Giver her credit. We eventually put someone out on her. But, if 24 isn’t guarded the way we guarded her, she goes off for 30 and then 12 doesn’t hurt us. I would like to take my chances on 12 hurting us, and she did it. She did a great job. A big shout out to her.”
CHRIS’ THOUGHTS
1. Rebounding, Rebounding, Rebounding
The three “reboundings” were down on purpose in the subhead above. That is the number of offensive rebounds North Clarion grabbed off missed free throws in the final 11.5 seconds helping the She-Wolves secure the win.
First, after Obenrader hit one of two free throws with 11.5 seconds left to make it 59-57, Abby Gatesman grabbed the offensive board after the Obenrader miss on the second charity shot.
Then, after Gatesman missed the front end of a one-and-one with 8.9 seconds to play, Haley Sherman collected the offensive board.
Finally, after Sherman missed two free throw with 6.6 to play, Obenrader was able to fight a Karns City player long enough for the ball that it eventually came out to Sherman again in front of the North Clarion bench, and time ran out.
“We talked about it at halftime that we needed to do a better job rebounding the basketball,” Dreihaup said. “The foul shots at the end, which we missed, which to me are killers, we were fortunate enough to get the rebounds. The best part was the girls knew enough to throw the ball back out and run some more clock.”
North Clarion’s domination on the offensive glass in the final seconds was just a microcosm of the game, which saw the She-Wolves out rebound Karns City 44-36 including 25-11 on the offensive glass.
“Our two big negative tonight were rebounding on both ends,” Andreassi said. “We didn’t get enough offensive and we gave up too many offensive to them. If you look at the whiteboard in their (pointing to the lockerroom), it was box out, box out, box out. Whatever happened in the last six, eight, 10 seconds was amplified because it was the end of the game.”
2. North Clarion is much more than Obenrader
Coming into the season, everyone expected North Clarion to rely heavily on Obenrader, the reigning All American Awards & Engraving/D9Sports.com District 9 Player of the Year. And the She-Wolves certainly have at times considering she is averaging 24.1 points and 14.8 rebounds per game. But Obenrader is only accounting for 38.9 percent of North Clarion’s points on the year, and in the She-Wolves two biggest road wins — at Kane over the Christmas holiday and Wednesday night — other players have played key roles — Mackenzie Bauer had 16 in the win over Kane.
“They (other teams) think Tori is just our team, but we all just keeping shooting and they don’t realize we can all do what can can do,” Schmader said.
Schmader wasn’t the only one to step up Wednesday night. Bauer, all five-foot-one of her, had a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Gatesman added eight points and eight rebounds.
Gatesman, a sophomore, is averaging 12.4 points a game up from her just over five last year, and Bauer, another sophomore, who saw limited action as a freshman, is adding 5.7 per game with Schmader is averaging 6.1 after her 35-point outburst the last two games.
“I really think tonight the other girls stepped up and showed anybody that we aren’t a one-person team,” Dreighaup said. “As a whole, the girls played super tonight, and it was a great win for us.”
3. Hegedus is great, but Karns City is still looking for consistency from its other players
As I said last week, Hegedus is the best guard in District 9 and she proved it again Wednesday with her second straight 30-point game and her third in her last four outings. She is now averaging a District 9-leading 25.9 points per game and earned well deserved praise from her head coach, especially for her work ethic.
“She just plays her butt off every night,” Andreassi said. “Good things happen to those who play like the way she does. Obviously, she is talented enough to do that. Everybody know it, and she still does it.”
But while Hegedus has been great, superior actually, the one thing Karns City doesn’t have that North Clarion does is the other options to take some of the pressure off of her.
Unlike Obenrader, Hegedus is accounting for over 50 percent (51.1 percent) of the Lady Gremlins offense, and Wednesday night three players — Hegedus, Alyssa Stitt and Livia Andreassi — accounted for all but six of Karns City’s points.
“At times, we need some other people to step up and hit some shots,” Steve Andreassi said. “You have to have an outlet for Emily, who gets in the lane pretty good. You have to have outlets. We are working really hard on trying to get people to compliment Emily. If you want to be a good team, a championship team, you have to have people that can shoot.”
Karns City got some promising looks from Andreassi, a senior, who hit a pair of threes and scored eight points, and Stitt, a junior who didn’t play last year, who scored 13 points while hitting three 3-pointers, Wednesday night.
“Alyssa and Livia have been working on it,” Steve Andreassi said. “Alyssa didn’t play basketball last year, and Livia’s first year, she was just kind of a support play. They have to hit some shots for us to win. Tonight, they did. It just wasn’t quite enough.”
4. Obenrader still finds a way to impact the game even when other teams try to stop her
While Karns City did a good job of trying to neutralize Obenrader, and she looked frustrated at times, she is still an impact player as seen by her 17 points and 12 boards. And she hit two crucial buckets in the fourth quarter. One a 1:40 into the quarter with North Clarion down five, 50-45, that seemed to stop the bleeding at the time, and another with 1:11 to play that put North Clarion back up three, 58-55, after Karns City couldn’t capitalize on a couple of situations where it could have gotten the lead back.
“She is a great player and knows when she needs to get the ball and score,” Dreihaup said. “She saw her opening. They were kind of having to guard Gabby Schmader at that point and it left Tori one-on-one, and she made a couple of real nice moves, a couple of real good baskets that helped us a lot in the fourth quarter.”
5. If you are a North Clarion fan, you are in heaven right now
North Clarion is now a perfect 11-0 on the season and one of just two unbeaten teams left in District 9 — the other is Otto-Eldred. Over the last two years, North Clarion has gone an incredible 37-3, and the She-Wolves are 25-1 since losing two in a row Jan. 18 and 20 of last season.
Add that to the fact Obenrader is closing in on the school record of 1,822 points held by her cousin, Wendy Obenrader — she topped 1,700 career points Wednesday and now has 1,703, and you start to understand that this is the golden era of North Clarion girls’ basketball.
The good thing, if you are a She-Wolves fan, is that the sophomore class, as mentioned above, has some strong talent to it, and Dreihaup is proving to be one of the better coaches in D9 — although he joked that he couldn’t imagine ever coaching 38 years like Elk County Catholic’s Aaron Straub, who won his 800th game as the boys’ coach at ECC this week, has. This run might not end this year after Obenrader, who is headed to Gannon on a hoops scholarship, graduates.
THE OUTCOME
North Clarion improved to 11-0, while Karns City fell to 6-4.
THE ROAD AHEAD
North Clarion gets another test Friday when it hosts a suddenly resurgent Keystone team. The last two times the two squads have met on the floor at North Clarion, the games have gone to double overtime with both won by the She-Wolves. After Friday’s game, North Clarion is at Moniteau, one of the three teams to beat the She-Wolves since the start of last season, Tuesday, Jan. 16, and then host A-C Valley, another of the teams to get a win over North Clarion, Jan. 19, before heading for another rematch at Keystone, Jan. 22.
Karns City is at Clarion-Limestone Friday before playing a makeup game at Cranberry Monday, Jan. 15, and then hosting Forest Area Tuesday, Jan. 16.
NORTH CLARION 59, KARNS CITY 57
Score by Quarters
North Clarion 11 17 15 16 — 59
Karns City 11 14 20 12 — 57
NORTH CLARION — 59
Mackenzie Bauer 5 0-3 11, Gabby Schmader 7 3-4 20, Abby Gatesman 2 3-4 8, Cierah Manross 0 0-0 0, Tori Obenrader 7 1-2 17, Haley Sherman 1 1-4 3. Totals 22 9-19 59.
KARNS CITY — 57
Emma Clark 2 0-0 4, Sara Knox 1 0-0 2, Alyssa Stitt 5 0-0 13, Livia Andreassi 3 0-2 8, Emily Hegedus 9 12-13 30, Emily Huff 0 0-0 0, Madison Kelly 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 12-15 57.
Three-pointers: North Clarion 6 (Schmader 2, Obenrader 2, Gatesman, Bauer). Karns City 5 (Stitt 3, Andreassi 2).
Rebounding: North Clarion — 25 offensive, 19 defensive, 44 total (Obenrader 12, Bauer 10, Gatesman 8). Karns City — 11 offensive, 25 defensive, 36 total (Hegedus 11, Knox 7, Stitt 6).
