RIDGWAY, Pa. (EYT/D9) – It was a tale of two halves for Clarion-Limestone on Monday evening as the Lions led by six points, 25-19, at halftime over Ridgway before the Elkers rallied in the second half for a five-point, 47-42 victory at Ridgway.
“As a coach you are never happy with a loss,” said C-L head coach Joe Ferguson. “However, I feel with us being a young team that this should be a learning experience for us as for later in the season.”
Dan Park paced Ridgway with 17 points and 10 rebounds while making 3-of-4 free throws. Aaron Sorge added 10 points while Dom Allegretto and Jack Benninger each added eight points.
“I actually felt Bryson Huwar did a decent job defensively on the Park boy inside tonight,” said Ferguson.
Tommy Smith led C-L (0-2) with 13 points, including three shots from beyond the 3-point line. Jordan Hesdon added 10 points with eight steals and five assists before fouling out late in the contest. Riley Klingensmith added seven points. Jase Ferguson handed out four assists.
Both teams seemed to want to have a slower tempo game during the first quarter as C-L held a 9-5 lead after one.
The Elkers closed to within 13-12 with 3:42 to play in the first half. C-L then countered with a 6-0 run of their own for a 19-12 lead with Klingensmith scoring four and Hesdon two during the spurt. Ridgway closed the quarter with a 7-6 edge to pull within six at 25-19 by halftime.
C-L got the ball to start the second half and the Lions took 50 seconds off the clock and got a good look, but the inside shot didn’t fall, which Ridgway turned into a 6-0 run to pull even at 25-25.
The Elkers would take their first lead since 1-0 on an old-fashioned three-point play by Benninger. The lead changed three more times over the final 4:30 until the game would be tied 32-all after three quarters.
“We wanted to run some clock coming out of the locker room with the lead and we actually got a good look that didn’t fall,” said Ferguson. “They went on a bit of a run after that, and we just weren’t able to get over the hump after that. We ran pretty much what we wanted to run, but the shots just didn’t go down at times.”
The two teams traded baskets throughout the first half of the fourth quarter until C-L would hold their last lead of the game at 40-39 with 4:30 to play. Ridgway then closed the game on an 8-2 run by making 5-of-8 free throws.
Ridgway finished 12-of-17 from the free throw line while the Lions finished 4-of-10.
“We talk about that all the time that you have to make free throws especially in tight ballgames,” said Ferguson. “That’s really what tonight came down to was that we weren’t finishing, and we didn’t make enough free throws.”
