SLAM TIME — Cameron County’s Nate Sestina scored 39 points, including 7 dunks in Saturday’s all-star game at Clarion High School. (Photo by George Powers)
CLARION — His team didn’t win, but Cameron County’s Nate Sestina did more than enough to earn the Most Valuable Player award at Saturday night’s 15th Annual Sportsmanship I/Clarion County YMCA All-Start Basketball Games at Clarion Area High School.
Sestina turned in a monster performance as the Blue Squad dropped a 114-100 shootout to the Red Squad, scoring 39 points with 12 rebounds. Part of his 18-of-30 shooting effort were seven dunks.
But Sestina’s dominance in the paint wasn’t enough to offset a balanced effort from the Red as seven players reached double figures in scoring. Clarion-Limestone’s Kolton Stiglitz led the way with 17 points and won the Sportsmanship Award.
For the winning Red Squad, plenty of balance led the way. Stiglitz scored 12 of his 17 points in the second half. He made 7 of 10 shots from the field and grabbed six rebounds with five blocked shots. Redbank Valley’s Jake Dougherty, North Clarion’s Christian Cyphert and DuBois Central Catholic’s Dane Aucker each scored 14 points.
Karns City’s David Olszak and Keystone’s Alex Graf each scored 13 points with Graf adding a double-double with 13 rebounds. Elk County Catholic’s Mitchell Struble finished with 12 points and shared the team-high with Olszak with five assists.
For the Blue, Brookville’s Tate Canavan finished with 15 points and nine rebounds and combined with Sestina for one of the plays of the night when he threw a high-arcing alley-oop pass, which Sestina slammed home.
Brockway’s Andrew Serafini also reached double figures for the Blue with 11 points and seven rebounds. Johnsonburg’s Christian Cherry finished with nine points and 10 rebounds.
The score was 43-43 at the half and then 69-69 with 11:04 remaining before the Red went on a 16-6 run t lead 86-75 with 7:56 remaining. Canavan’s layup with 6:36 left got the Blue to within 86-84 before the Red slammed the door shut with a game-clinching 23-6 streak to take a 109-90 lead by the 2:41 mark.
NOTES: This year’s coaches were Joe Ferguson of Clarion-Limestone and Greg Bean of Redbank Valley, who coached the Red Squad while Nate Glunt of Clearfield and Jon Songer of Cameron County Red Raiders coached the Blue Squad. … The 32-point contest winner was Dougherty of Redbank Valley.
RED 114, BLUE 100
Score By Halves
Blue 43 57 – 100
Red 43 71 – 114
Blue – 100
Christian Cherry (Johnsonburg) 4-16 0-0 9, Scott Toy (Venango Catholic) 4-7 0-0 9, Andrew Serafini (Brockway) 5-14 1-2 11, Nate Sestina (Cameron Co.) 18-30 2-3 39, Tate Canavan (Brookville) 7-18 0-0 15, Devin Shumaker (Redbank Valley) 0-9 0-0 0, Ben MacDonald (Ridgway) 3-9 1-2 7, James Bair (Moniteau) 1-6 0-2 2, Janco Swart (Cranberry) 4-7 0-2 8. Totals: 46-116 4-11 100.
Red – 114
Jake Dougherty (Redbank Valley) 5-12 0-0 14, Mitchell Struble (ECC) 4-13 1-2 12, Erik Sellers (Clearfield) 3-8 0-0 6, Keith Spehalski (Cameron Co.) 2-10 0-0 4, Kolton Stiglitz (C-L) 7-10 0-0 17, David Olszak (Karns City) 5-9 0-0 13, Christian Cyphert (North Clarion) 7-14 0-0 14, Dane Aucker (DCC) 6-15 0-0 14, Alex Graf (Keystone) 6-10 0-0 13, Ryan Seelye (ECC) 3-8 0-0 7. Totals: 48-109 1-2 114.
3-pointers: Blue 4-30 (Cherry 1-4, Toy 1-3, Sestina 1-7, Canavan 1-3, Serafini 0-4, Shumaker 0-4, MacDonald 0-2, Bair 0-2, Swart 0-1), Red 17 (Dougherty 4-10, Struble 3-9, Stiglitz 3-5, Olszak 3-5, Aucker 2-8, Graf 1-2, Seelye 1-4, Sellers 0-2, Spehalski 0-4, Cyphert 0-3). Rebounds: Blue 72 (Sestina 12, Cherry 10), Red 62 (Graf 13). Turnovers: Blue 14, Red 11.
