KARNS CITY, Pa. (EYT/D9) — It’s never easy and almost always a grind.
Such is life in the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference these days. The league is as rough-and-tumble as they come.
(Pictured above, Karns City coach Zach Kepple talks with his team during a timeout)
And the Karns City boys basketball team has found that out numerous times already this season.
Again the Gremlins rocketed to a sizable lead, going up on visiting Clarion-Limestone by as many as 21 points in the second quarter, only to watch the Lions take chunks out of that advantage.
By the half the lead was down to 12 and C-L got as close as eight in the third quarter before Karns City pulled away and prevailed, 67-53, on Tuesday night.
“We played a good basketball game for three quarters, three and a half quarters,” said Karns City coach Zach Kepple. “It just always seems like we have a lull somewhere and we’re trying to get rid of that.
“Good teams like Clarion-Limestone make those runs and stay in it,” Kepple added. “They are a good basketball team and it’s always nice to come out on top.”
Clarion-Limestone Area High School sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Redbank Chevrolet and DuBrook.
The KSAC is a grinder and Karns City was able to survive another bare-knuckle brawl against C-L.
Jack Craig scored a game-high 24 points for the Lions and was a big part of an 11-2 run over the final three minutes of the first half to get C-L some big momentum heading into the break.
Craig scored nine alone in the second, including a steal and layup as time expired.
“I keep telling him he has to keep taking those shots — earlier, too,” said Clarion-Limestone coach Pat Craig, who is also Jack’s father. “He has to look to score more. He didn’t score big for our team last year and we need him to score more this year.”
Clarion-Limestone closed to 44-36 early in the third quarter and had possession, but couldn’t convert.
Karns City then went on a quick 10-3 run to get some breathing room.
“We dug ourselves a big hole there in the first quarter just not being able to put the ball in the hoop,” Coach Craig said. “And Karns City shot really well in that first half and throughout the game.”
The Gremlins hit a total of nine 3-pointers from five players in the win.
Hobie Bartoe had a big first half with 10 of his 13 points — including two big 3s.
“It felt good because at the beginning of the season, I had trouble shooting,” Bartoe said. “I’ve been going in the gym a lot more and shooting and that’s really helped me improve.”
Jacob Callihan was a beast again for the Gremlins with a 19-point, 10-rebound double-double. He was also 6-of-6 from the free throw line and played physically inside.
“We talked at the beginning of the year about how we have a pretty tough lineup to guard,” Kepple said. “We have guys who can score and we always talk about finding that mismatch. Recently, it’s been J.C. He does a lot of things really well.”
Luke Cramer added 16 points, including three contested 3-pointers — his calling card.
It seems the more difficult the shot, the more accurate Cramer becomes.
“There’s been a couple of time where he’s taken one and he goes, ‘If I would have missed that, I know I would have gotten yelled at,’” Kepple said, smiling. “I encourage these guys to shoot. They’re all good shooters. But Cramer never ceases to amaze me when there’s a guy in his face and he’s jumping as high as he can and he releases that ball at the top of his jump shot and it just goes in. That comes from a lot of hard work. He shoots a ton in practice and gets extra shots up all the time. He does a great job of knocking down big shots when we need him.”
Karns City also got seven points, seven assists and seven rebounds from Taite Beighley — oddly, the second consecutive game he’s put up those same numbers.
Clarion-Limestone did a good job holding Beighley down and Karns City did an equally good job containing the Lions’ Jase Ferguson, who ended up with just two points.
Coach Craig, who is a Karns City graduate and finished his career with the Gremlins with 1,336 points, said this is a learning experience for his team.
“Our problem this year is we can’t put four quarters together,” Craig said. “If you can’t do that against a really good team, you’re gonna be in trouble. But I was happy with them battling back. We just can’t have bad quarters like the first quarter.”
Clarion-Limestone Area High School sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Redbank Chevrolet and DuBrook.
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