KARNS CITY, Pa. (D9Sports) — Brooke Irwin’s layup off a Kylee Eaton pass with 13.3 seconds left sent A-C Valley to its first-ever KSAC Title game with a 54-53 win at Karns City Friday night.
(Photo: Ellie Thompson (left) and Brooke Irwin of A-C Valley helped the Lady Falcons secure their first-ever KSAC divisional title and were named the co-Hager Paving Players of the Game)
Down one with 24.7 seconds left after Emily Hegedus had given Karns City a 53-52 lead with just over 30 seconds to play, A-C Valley, which secured the KSAC South crown with the win, got the ball inbounds to Cami McNany, who looked for Ellie Thompson in the paint. But Hegedus had Thompson blanketed, so McNany passed to Kylee Eaton at the top of the key. Eaton then found a cutting Irwin, who beat Livia Andreassi to the low block, and Irwin laid it in for the lead.
“When Kylee passed me the ball, I knew I had to put it in the hoop,” Irwin said. “If I couldn’t, Ellie would rebound or Kylee would be there to rebound it.”
The play was meant to go to the block to Thompson but had other options built in, according to A-C Valley head coach Dave Sherman.
“We were going to iso on the block,” Sherman said. “If it wasn’t there, we were going to run a high-ball screen. They ran the screen away and it (the ball) came through and ended up skipping over to Brooke, and she knocked it down. It was a good ball reversal. They do a great job of finding the open person.”
The KSAC South was far from secure with Irwin’s hoop.
Karns City took a timeout with 11.2 seconds left, and everyone in the gym knew the Lady Gremlins would look to get the ball to Hegedus, the school’s all-time leading scorer with over 1,600 career points and the leading scorer in District 9 this season at over 25 points per game. Hegedus beat A-C Valley in Foxburg in early January on a coast-to-coast drive in the closing seconds of overtime in that game.
“Don’t let Emily get it,” Thompson said when asked what the message was during the timeout in the A-C Valley huddle. “If she does (get it), don’t foul and try not to let her get to the hoop.”
A-C Valley did a good job of surrounding Hegedus, but the consequence of that was the Karns City senior found her teammate, Livia Andreassi, wide open in the left corner for a potential game-winning 3-pointer.
And Andreassi, who beat Moniteau in last year’s District 9 Class 3A title game with a late shot in the paint, nearly was the hero.
But her shot rimmed in and then out, and Alyssa Stitt and Hegedus fought each other for the rebound. Stitt was able to get it and try to put up a last-second desperation shot, but it appeared as if Hegedus might have blocked her teammates shot in the mass confusion.
“It was probably the longest 13 seconds of my life,” Irwin said. “I was so nervous.”
Listen to more of what the co-Hager Paving Players of the Game Irwin and Thompson, who finished with 24 points, seven rebounds, two steals and an assist had to say.
For the first two-and-a-half quarters it didn’t look like there was going to be any celebrating in Foxburg Friday night.
A-C Valley, like it had at home in the first meeting with Karns City, fell behind by double digits in the second half.
In this case, a Sara Knox bucket with 4:21 to go in the third quarter put Karns City ahead by 14, 40-26.
But Knox’s basket was the last by the Lady Gremlins until Hegedus tied the game at 51 with a layup with 58.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter, a span of 11:23 without a field goal for Karns CIty. It was also the last points for the home team until a pair of Madison Kelly free throws with 5:19 left in the game.
In between, A-C Valley scored 21 straight points to take a 47-40 lead.
Thompson was the catalyst of the run scoring nine points, while Emma Fox came off the bench to add five tallies.
“I was struggling there in the first half and needed to get going,” Thompson, who had 18 second-half points, said.
Cami McNany facilitated the run with two steals, four assists and a banked in 3-pointer that gave A-C Valley its first lead, 42-40, with 1:02 left in the third quarter. She finished with eight points, seven assists, five steals and three rebounds.
“Cam sees the court,” Sherman said. “She gets the ball where it needs to be. Especially when we are in the open court and can run.”
Karns City didn’t go away.
Showing the heart of a champion, the Lady Gremlins answered the A-C Valley run with an 8-1 run of their own that erased a 51-45 deficit with 2:41 to go and gave them the 53-52 lead on the Hegedus layup with 30.6 seconds to play.
Most of the damage came from the free-throw line, where Karns City was 9 of 10 from in the fourth quarter and 20 of 26 from in the game.
“It was a knock-down, drag-out,” Sherman said. “That’s all it was.”
CHRIS’ THOUGHTS
1. This KSAC South Title Didn’t Happen Overnight.
Give the players, coaches and parents credit for this KSAC South championship. It’s been a long road to get to this point for the Lady Falcons, who have had as many winless seasons (three) as winning seasons (three) since 1995, and who went a combined 0-47 in 2006 and 2007.
“I have known (these kids) since grade school or before that even, most of them,” Sherman, whose daughter Allison is a senior on the team, said. “I took over the elementary program when they were in fourth grade. I am not taking credit, but we got them in the gym and they showed a lot of potential. We took them to some tournaments and took them to the YMCA League in Clarion. These parents all jumped on board because we saw what was there. They progressed and moved through and worked hard spent the time in the gym. Dewey Irwin, Brooke’s dad, kind of took up the torch after a while and got them into the gym and into some AAU stuff. They have really worked hard. There have been a lot of hands in it. I would never take full credit for it. Sometimes, I just need to stay out of the way and let them go. They deserve every minute of this. It has been a long process.”
2. Thompson stepped up and it helped her team take the next step.
There is no questioning the greatness of Thompson. She is the all-time leading scorer in A-C Valley girls’ basketball history with 1,385 points. And she is averaging 19.2 points per game this season.
But she took her game to another level in the second half. The level that you see the great ones take it to. She put the Lady Falcons on her back and carried them when they were down.
If we see the Ellie Thompson we saw in the second half once the postseason starts, A-C Valley is going to be right there with North Clarion and Otto-Eldred in the fight for the District 9 Class 1A title, and as North Clarion showed last year, if you win the Class 1A title in District 9 right now you are in the conversation for the PIAA title.
“She usually takes what is there and is extremely unselfish, to a flaw sometimes,” Sherman said of his senior star. “I have been trying to push her to be more assertive and look for her shot. She realized she needed to step up and get things going. I never said a word to her. I think she just sort of realized it was her time, and she did it.”
3. Emma Fox had two monster baskets in the third quarter.
Fox came into the game having scored 15 points all season. In a matter of 42 seconds in the third quarter, she pushed that total to 20. She hit a shot from just inside the 3-point arch to cut Karns City’s lead to 40-34. Then she took a pass from McNany and drilled a 3-pointer that made it 40-37.
“She is streaky,” Sherman said. “She is a really good defender, and I know that. We utilize her in that role a lot. If you are open, you have to step up and knock it down. If it’s in the flow of the offense, you have to shoot it. Emma took her turn tonight.”
4. North Clarion vs. A-C Valley for the KSAC Title (and then maybe the D9 title).
The win sets up the fifth matchup between North Clarion and A-C Valley in the last two years, this time in the KSAC Title Game at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Clarion University’s Tippin Gym. And the odds are more than even that the same two teams could meet up two weeks from that game for a much bigger prize, the District 9 Class 1A title.
Last year, the squads played three times with North Clarion winning the final two including a come-from-behind, 57-50, win in the District 9 Class 1A semifinals. This year, North Clarion won, 43-34, in Frills Corners in just the second game the Lady Falcons played without point guard Olivia Boocks, who is out for the year with a knee injury.
Since that loss, A-C Valley has rolled off seven straight wins and should make it eight in a row heading into Friday’s KSAC Title game.
5. Hegedus. Wow, she is a special player.
I know. I say that every time I cover a Karns City game. You know why? Because it’s true. I thought Irwin did an outstanding job on the Lady Gremlin senior star making her work for everything Friday night. And you know what? She still ended up with 26 points, including 12 from the free-throw line, seven rebounds and four steals.
It got me thinking. If District 9 were only like Philadelphia, we could have a charter school or magnet school in say Lamartine. And on that team, we could have Hegedus and Thompson and North Clarion’s Tori Obenrader and Moniteau’s Emma Bair and Redbank Valley’s Lexi Holt (who scored 35 points Friday night in a loss to Bair and Moniteau) and Keystone’s Taylor Geer, just to mention a few. Do you think we could win a state title? I sure the heck would like to try.
THE OUTCOME
A-C Valley moved to 17-4 overall and finished KSAC South play at 9-1. Karns City fell to 10-9 and is 6-3 in the South with a game left Monday vs. Moniteau.
THE ROAD AHEAD
A-C Valley closes out the regular season when it hosts DuBois Central Catholic Tuesday. The Lady Falcons then play in the aforementioned KSAC TItle Game at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Clarion University’s Tippin Gym before entering the D9 Class 1A playoffs.
Karns City has a rematch with rival Moniteau Monday on the road before traveling to Clarion-Limestone Wednesday. It is unknown if the Lady Gremlins will play Beaver Falls, who they were scheduled to play Monday before having to make up the Moniteau game. The Lady Gremlins then should head to the D9 3A playoffs where they will rematch for a third time with Moniteau with the winner taking on Brookville (or at least that is what it is looking like).
A-C VALLEY 54, KARNS CItY 53
Score by Quarters
A-C Valley 11 9 22 12 — 54
Karns City 15 18 7 13 — 53
A-C VALLEY — 54
Cami McNany 3 0-0 8, Kylee Eaton 1 1-2 3, Brooke Irwin 2 0-0 4, Annie Viertel 2 0-0 6, Ellie Thompson 8 7-9 24, Emma Fox 2 0-0 5, Allison Sherman 2 0-0 4. Totals 20 8-11 54.
KARNS CITY — 53
Olivia Mourer 0 0-0 0, Sara Knox 2 2-4 6, Alyssa Stitt 2 4-4 9, Livia Andreassi 4 0-0 10, Emily Hegedus 7 12-16 26, Madison Kelly 0 2-2 2, Emma Clark 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 20-26 53.
Three-pointers: A-C Valley 6 (McNany 2, Viertel 2, Thompson, Fox). Karns City 3 (Andreassi 2, Stitt).
Assists: A-C Valley 9 (McNay 7). Karns City 5 (Andreassi 2).
Steals: A-C Valley 10 (McNany 5, Viertel 3). Karns City 6 (Hegedus 4).
Rebounding: A-C Valley 10 offensive, 13 defensive, 23 total (Thompson 7, Eaton 6). Karns City 9 offensive, 20 defensive, 29 total (Hegedus 7, Knox 6).
