KNOX, Pa. (D9Sports) — Results in Knox and Clarion Saturday afternoon helped Redbank Valley claim its first-ever KSAC South crown in girls’ basketball.(Photo by Shelly Atzeni. Check out more of Atzeni’s work here.)
In a game that ended around 2:50 p.m., Clarion beat Karns City, 63-28. Then, about an hour later, Keystone held on to top Cranberry, 39-37.
The end result, a KSAC South title for the Lady Bulldogs regardless of how they fare Wednesday in their KSAC South finale at Moniteau.
A win over Moniteau would give Redbank Valley (7-2 in league play) the title outright. A loss would leave the Lady Bulldogs in a three-way tie for first place in the KSAC South with Keystone and Cranberry, who both finished league play with 7-3 records.
The first tiebreaker is how the teams fared against each other in league play but that doesn’t break the tie as all three of them split their games with each other.
The next tiebreaker is how each team did vs. the KSAC North.
Redbank Valley and Keystone are both finished with games against the KSAC North having both gone 5-1 vs. the Northern teams with their only losses being to North Clarion. Cranberry is currently 4-1 vs. the KSAC North with a game at North Clarion remaining on Wednesday.
If Cranberry beats North Clarion, all three teams are 5-1 vs. the KSAC North so the next tiebreaker is how the three of them each fared against the next team in the standings below them in the KSAC South. This is where Clarion’s win over Karns City comes into play.
By beating the Lady Gremlins, Clarion assured itself of finishing in fourth place in the KSAC South by itself. Both Cranberry and Keystone split the season series with Clarion, but Redbank Valley swept the Lady Cats thus making the Lady Bulldogs the KSAC South champions.
If Cranberry loses to North Clarion, that would eliminate the Berries from KSAC South contention making them the third-place team behind Keystone and Redbank Valley based on a worse record (4-2 vs. 5-1) than the other two vs. the KSAC North.
That would then create a two-way tie for the South between Redbank Valley and Keystone. The teams split the season series, and both teams finished 5-1 vs. the KSAC North. That brings it back to how each team fared vs. the next team in the standings in the KSAC South. Both teams split with Cranberry bringing it once again to how each fared against Clarion. Again, Redbank Valley wins the tiebreaker based on a 2-0 record vs. Clarion while Keystone went 1-1.
The Lady Bulldogs will play North Clarion in the KSAC Title game at 8 p.m. Saturday at the new Tippin Gym at Clarion University. The game will be audio broadcast on exploreClarion and D9Sports.com.
