STRATTANVILLE, Pa. (EYT/D9) — When teams can shoot 3-pointers, no lead is safe as Clarion-Limestone lost an 11-point halftime lead only to survive with a late Moniteau turnover and subsequent free throw to pull out a 66-63 victory on Wednesday evening at the Lion’s Den.
(Above, Jordan Hesdon)
With C-L leading 65-63 with 29 seconds remaining and following a timeout, the Warriors appeared to be setting up for a last shot, but Jordan Hesdon stole a cross-court pass and was fouled with four seconds left.
Hesdon made the first foul shot, but missed the second. However, Ryan Hummell grabbed the rebound and time ran out, sealing the victory.
“We’re happy to come away with the win, but not necessarily how we accomplished it,” said C-L head coach Joe Ferguson. “Moniteau has a nice ballclub and they’ve been playing really well lately. We have things we know we need to work on.”
Hesdon, playing in his first game back from an ankle injury, scored 16 points, including an 8-of-12 effort from the free throw line. Riley Klingensmith scored a game-high 19 points for the Lions while Alex Painter knocked down a pair of three’s on his way to 12 points.
“It was definitely good having Jordy back in the lineup tonight,” said Ferguson. “Especially since Jase (Ferguson) was under the weather tonight and you could definitely see he wasn’t at full strength. I thought Alex Painter had a really good game tonight at both ends of the floor. I had to pull him out a few times because of foul trouble though I didn’t want to because he was playing so well.”
Meanwhile Moniteau knocked down eight 3-pointers, including four to open the second half that turned a 35-24 deficit into a 38-37 lead.
Five players scored in double figures with Nathan Kelly and Colton Thomas each scoring 12. David Dessicino and Kyle Pry each adding 11. Chason Rugg added 10. Pry hit three of the Warriors 3-pointers while Rugg and Ryan Jewart each hit two. Nathan Kelly added one.
C-L held a five-point lead twice in the first quarter at 11-6 and then at the end of the frame 18-13 after Tommy Smith hit a three at the buzzer.
Moniteau closed to within one at 22-21 with 4:07 to play before an 8-0 run pushed the lead back to nine at 30-21 with 3:27 to play in the half.
The Lions held a 5-3 edge the rest of the quarter to go ahead by 11 at 35-24 by halftime.
Thanks to the 3-pointers, Moniteau opened the second half on a 14-2 run to take a 38-37 lead. A 6-0 response by C-L put the Lions back in front 43-38 with 2:53 to play. A Rugg three closed the gap to 43-41. Once again the Lions fought back with an 8-3 run to take a 51-44 lead after three.
“We talked at halftime to get a hand in the face of their shooters,” said Ferguson. “We just left them out there to shoot and they were knocking them down. We knew they had like four guys who could shoot the three’s, but we weren’t defending like we knew we had to.”
The Lions would push the lead to what seemed at the time to be a comfortable 11-point lead midway through the fourth quarter at 61-50.
However, Moniteau would have one last run in them by creating turnovers and defensive rebounding to go on a 13-4 run closing the gap to 65-63 with 48 seconds to play.
C-L came down and missed a short jumper that the Warriors rebounded and called timeout. Following the break, Moniteau looked to be playing for the last shot, but an errant pass was intercepted by Hesdon with four seconds to play.
“We don’t know what is going to happen if we’ll play on Friday or not,” said Ferguson. “We’ll try and be ready either way. We feel we can play with anybody if we’re able to put a complete game together. If we don’t play it will give the guys a chance to rest up a little bit.”
C-L is scheduled to play at Redbank Valley on Friday evening.
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