WEST SUNBURY, Pa. (EYT/D9) — With a persistent, barking cough due to a rather nasty bout of bronchitis, Moniteau senior Abbey Jewart soldiered on anyway in a key game against rival Karns City.
There was no way she was going to miss it.
It wasn’t always pretty for the ailing guard. She made just two shots. The last was the biggest and most daring of the game, however.
(Pictured above, Abbey Jewart)
Jewart calmly hit a 3-pointer with 55 seconds left in the fourth quarter to give the Warriors a 40-38 lead and Catherine Kelly salted it away with two clutch free throws with 33 seconds remaining to give Moniteau a 42-38 victory over the Gremlins in contest that featured huge momentum swings.
And gutsy performances — perhaps none gutsier than Jewart’s.
“It just felt amazing that it went in,” said Jewart, quelling her coughing fits long enough to talk, a huge smile on her face. “It was nice because I’ve been struggling with shooting lately.
“It’s rough,” Jewart added about playing with the cough. She missed Monday’s game against DuBois because of it. “But, you know, I like a challenge. We’ll get rid of (the cough) eventually.”
It looked early on that Moniteau would have no trouble getting rid of Karns City.
The Warriors (7-1) jumped out to an a 11-6 lead after one quarter and were up 21-9 with a little more than two minutes remaining in the second before Karns City adjusted, settled down and began chipping away.
Moniteau hurt the Gremlins on backdoor cuts and the Gremlins started to shut those down.
They also were able to finally convert on the other end and closed to 21-13 by the half thanks to four points on a pair short jumpers by Naomi Venesky.
Even down 25-15 in the third, Karns City kept coming.
Clutch 3-pointers by Hanna Dailey and Chloe Fritch cut deeply into the Moniteau lead and by the end of three quarters, the game was deadlocked at 27-27.
Karns City’s run continued in the fourth as the Gremlins snagged their first lead on a layup by Hannah Buchanan and were up by as many as eight at 36-28 with five minutes remaining in the game.
“I’m so proud of the way they came back,” said Karns City coach Steve Andreassi. “They had control of the game there for a while, but we have to learn how to close it out. We’re a bunch of juniors and sophomores and freshmen that are still trying to figure the game out.”
And Moniteau is blessed with a crew of experienced seniors.
Kelly’s late free throws were every bit as clutch as Jewart’s go-ahead 3-pointer.
Kelly, one of four senior starters, made the first one to make it 41-38 — still a one-possession game, especially with the good perimeter shooters the Gremlins possess.
(Moniteau coach Dee Arblaster talks with her team)
Andreassi called a full timeout and Kelly went back out after the break and drained her second free throw to change the entire strategy of both teams in the waning seconds.
“That’s big time right there,” said Moniteau coach Dee Arblaster of Kelly draining that second free throw following a long stoppage of play. “That’s big, especially with the game on the line. She sometimes gets down on herself when she doesn’t shoot well, but there’s nobody else I’d want to have the ball or to go to the foul line.”
Karns City did a good job slowing Kelly down with Venesky and freshman Phoebe Brandon following her everywhere she went on the floor.
Kelly still finished with 13 and went 4-for-4 from the line in the fourth.
“I shoot free throws all the time because I know when the game is on the line, Dee wants me to have the ball,” Kelly said. “I want to be able to make it for these guys because they do so much for me to help me get open and make big shots for us to win.”
Kendall Sankey also came up huge for Moniteau with a team-high 14 points and 10 rebounds in her latest double-double. She also had six assists and five steals.
“Kendall was a beast on the boards,” Arblaster said.
Sankey and Kelly arrived early for the game to get ready for what they knew would be a physical evening.
“We were just hitting each other,” Sankey said, chuckling. “Doing contact stuff. I think it helped because we knew we were going to face contact and we had to power through.”
“They had the big pads out,” Arblaster added. “They were beating each other up.”
It paid off in what was a gritty victory.
(Before the game, members of the Moniteau and Karns City girls basketball teams gathered in a circle for a moment of silence for Mason Martin, who is still recovering from serious brain trauma, and his mother, Stacy Martin, who lost her battle with cancer)
“I think it shows that we can keep our composure. even in tough situations like that,” Sankey said. “We didn’t feel defeated or anything. I think we kept our intensity and that was good. That helped.”
All wasn’t lost for Karns City, either, a fairly young team that was undaunted by the early deficit.
Fritch led the Gremlins with 13 points — including three 3-pointers. Dailey added seven and Venesky and Brandon each had six.
Brandon was particularly effective off the bench in guarding Kelly.
“She has no fear,” Andreassi said of the freshman. “She knows how to defend and she knows how to get out and get through screens and on the offensive end she scored six points.
“What we didn’t do is play great in the first half,” the coach added. “It was backdoor cuts in the first half and then not keeping one girl off the glass and that’s what killed us. We’re not gonna let that happen again.”
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