CLARION, Pa. (D9Sports) — Top-seeded North Clarion used a strong second quarter and a big game from 6-foot-7 junior Kyle Mills to knock off upset-minded A-C Valley, the eighth seed, 63-53, in the District 9 Class 1A quarterfinals at Clarion High School Friday night.
(Photo: Kyle Mills, who was the Hager Paving Player of the Game, after leading North Clarion with 18 points and 10 rebounds)
Listen to the game.
The Wolves (20-3) trailed 12-11 after a quarter but outscored the Falcons (9-14) 19-8 in the second quarter thanks to 10 points from Mills, who finished the game with a team-high 18 points and 10 rebounds, to take a 30-20 halftime lead.
“I was just getting open, getting down on the block and letting them put it into me,” Mills said.
Listen to more of what Mills had to say about the game.
North Clarion needed the big fellow to step up after a choppy first quarter that saw them down by the point after shooting 5 of 12 in the first eight minutes.
“Tonight, the outside shots weren’t falling,” North Clarion head coach Andy Bish said. “So we focused on driving in the second quarter and pounding the ball inside. Kyle did great.”
Mills quickly found a rhythm in the second quarter taking passes from Tyler McCord-Wolbert and Nathan Banner to score the first four points of the frame for North Clarion and then going to work in the offensive glass to score four more later in the frame.
“I have the height, and they just put it into me and I put it up,” Mills said.
After halftime, A-C Valley made a run at the Wolves in the third quarter and closed the gap to four, 36-32, thanks in large part to 10 points from sophomore Eddie Stevanus, who finished with a game-high 19 to go with nine rebounds.
But Mills had a putback that started an 8-0 run for North Clarion that allowed the Wolves to maintain a 10-point lead, 44-34, going to the fourth quarter.
That lead quickly grew to 16, 54-38, early in the quarter thanks to seven points from Nathan Banner, who finished with 16 points and five rebounds. Banner is now three points shy of 1,000 in his career.
CHRIS’ THOUGHTS
1. Banner came alive scoring late but was a force all night.
While 10 of Banner’s 16 points came in the fourth quarter, it wasn’t like he was invisible the rest of the time.
“He was finding the open guys,” Bish said. “Yeah, he is our scoring leader, but he is a stat filler. He is going to get the assists and the rebounds and the steals and everything else that goes with it.”
2. North Clarion knew this wasn’t going to be easy.
This was the third meeting of the season for the two teams. After a Wolves blowout win in the first won over the Christmas break in a game Stevanus didn’t play, A-C Valley gave North Clarion everything it could handle in a 49-43 Wolves win Jan. 19 at A-C Valley.
“We talked about that at practice this week,” Bish said. “We knew they wanted to slow us down, hustle back, get back into the paint not let us get our transition game going.”
3. What a luxury having Mills is.
Most teams can’t play both a run-and-gun style and a half-court set style. North Clarion is the exception thanks to the wildcard in Mills, who is the team’s second-leading scorer despite not starting.
On Friday, A-C Valley, for the most part, was successful in forcing North Clarion to play a more half-court game yet it didn’t matter to the Wolves.
“We didn’t get going tonight as much as we normally do,” Bish said. “We just had to get movement going on offense and get the ball inside.
“Kyle, whether he is scoring or not, he is opening up the floor for everybody else.”
4. North Clarion is deep and it showed when Zander Hargenrader tweaked an ankle early.
One of North Clarion’s starters, Zander Hargenrader, tweaked his ankle less than two minutes into the game and never returned. But North Clarion was able to overcome the loss because of its depth. The Wolves have routinely played 11 guys all season.
“It kind of changed the rotation a little bit,” Bish said. “Maybe Logan (Minich) and Matson (Higgins) played a few more minutes tonight. But, we have been playing 11 guys all season so that is fortunate in this situation. A lot of teams can’t recover from losing a starter, but we have the depth to do it.”
Mills said the team just came together without Hargenrader.
“We just came together as a team, and we got it done,” Mill said.
5. North Clarion is pleased to be back in the semifinals and to have earned a berth in the PIAA playoffs but it has loftier goals.
“The importance (of the win) to us is we are excited to play (at least) three more games,” Bish said. “But we are going to be disappointed if we don’t make it farther than last year. Next week is going to be a big game for us and our goal is to be playing Saturday.”
THE ROAD AHEAD
North Clarion will take on Johnsonburg in the semifials sometime next week at a site, time and date to be determined.
NORTH CLARION 63, A-C VALLEY 53
Score by Quarters
A-C Valley 12 8 14 19 — 53
North Clarion 11 19 14 19 — 63
A-C VALLEY — 53
Levi Orton 2 0-0 5, Eddie Stevanus 8 3-5 19, Jeff Ginn 4 0-0 9, Brendan Price 1 1-2 3, Dalton Callander 0 5-6 5, Tanner Merwin 0 3-4 3, Brady Cullen 1 0-0 2, Russ Carr 3 1-2 7. Totals 19 13-19 53.
NORTH CLARION — 63
Jesse Schmader 4 0-2 8, Sam Minich 3 0-0 7, Zander Hargenrader 0 0-0 0, Keevan Weaver 1 1-2 3, Logan Minch 3 0-1 6, Matson Higgins 0 0-1 0, Korey Mills 1 0-0 2, Tyler McCord-Wolbert 0 1-2 1, Nathan Banner 6 4-6 16, Noah Meyeres 1 0-0 2, Kyle Mills 9 0-0 18. Totals 27 6-12 63.
Three-pointers: A-C Valley 2 (Orton, Price). North Clarion 1 (Sam Minich).
Rebounds: A-C Valley 20 offensive, 19 defensive, 39 total (Stevanus 9, Ginn 9, Orton 6). North Clarion 15 offensive, 16 defensive, 31 total (Kyle Mills 10, Banner 5).
