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Karns City Girls Back to D9 3A Title Game; North Clarion Advances in 1A – Powered by Knox Country Farm Supply

KNOX, Pa. – The third time was the charm for the Karns City girls’ basketball team.

(Photo of Emily Hegedus, who had 19 points in Karns City’s win over Moniteau Friday. Photo by Howie Dittman. Check out more of Dittman’s work here)

After dropping the two regular-season meetings with Moniteau by a combined nine points. Lady Gremlins turned the tables on their rivals ending the Lady Warriors season with a 40-32 win Friday night in the District 9 Class 3A semifinals at Keystone High School.

Karns City, the third seed, had to rally from a 22-15 second-half deficit and did so by outscoring the Lady Warriors, the second seed, 25-10, in the final two quarters.

“Defense was a big difference,” Karns City head coach Steve Andreassi said.

Emily Hegedus again led the way Karns City as she led all scorers with 19 points. Her off balanced bucket at the buzzer to end the third quarter gave the Lady Gremlins the spark they needed heading to fourth with the game tied at 27.

Hegedus scored 10 of her 19 in the second-half and came up with a huge block that led to a Karns City rebound up six points with 50 seconds remaining that all but sealed the victory as Livia Andreassi hit 1-of-2 free throws to extend the lead to three possessions at 37-30.

Andreassi, the coach’s daughter who scored seven points, had given Karns City (12-10) its first lead since 7-3 midway through the first quarter when she nailed a trey 4:45 remaining putting the Lady Gremlins in front 32-29.

Moniteau was able to take the first-half lead thanks to Emma Bair who scored all 10 of her points in the first two quarters but was shut out after halftime.

The Lady Warriors were not able to cope well with the Karns City ball pressure in the second-half and turned the ball over 11 times while shooting just 4-for-24 over the final 16 minutes.

Alyssa Stitt added nine points for Karns City with Izzy Bair chipping in seven for Moniteau.

The Lady Gremlins will now try to win their fifth straight District 9 Championship, and second in a row in Class 3A, when they face top-seeded Brookville, who had a bye to the championship game, next week at time, place and date to be determined.

NORTH CLARION 46, DUBOIS CENTRAL CATHOLIC 30

CLARION, Pa. – For a half, ninth-seeded DuBois Central Catholic gave top-seeded, unbeaten and defending champion North Clarion all it could handle, but in the end Tori Obenrader and the She-Wolves were too much for the Cardinals with North Clarion moving into the District 9 Class 1A semifinals with a 46-30 win at Clarion High School.

Relisten to all the exciting action.

After taking a 19-6 lead early in the second quarter, North Clarion (24-0) went cold from the field making just 2 of its final 12 shots of the quarter allowing DCC (10-15) to claw back into the game down five, 26-21, at halftime.

The Lady Cardinals then scored the first basket of the second half and watched an Ashley Wruble 3-pointer just miss that would have tied the game early in the half.

North Clarion, behind seven points from Obenrader, who had another monster double-double with 23 points and 16 rebounds, then went on a 9-0 run that put the lead back in double digits at 35-23.

Obenrader talked about the win.

The lead was still 12, 38-26, at the end of three quarters and an old-school 3-point play from Gabby Schmader followed by a Mackenzie Bauer bucket put the game away giving the She-Wolves a 43-26 lead with just under four minutes left.

Bauer added six points, five steals and four rebounds for North Clarion, while Abby Gatesman, who sat out the entire second quarter with two fouls, added seven rebounds, five steals and two points.

Abbey Pettenati paced DCC with 10 points with Shay Gulvas adding seven. Alyssa Bittner had a team-best eight rebounds to go with a few blocked shots and two points, while Wruble had six boards.

North Clarion, which has qualified for the semifinals and with it the PIAA playoffs for the third straight year, will take on fifth-seeded Elk County Catholic in the semifinals next week at a site, time and place to be determined.