RIMERSBURG, Pa. (EYT/D9) — It’s a good thing Caden Rainey has a sweet tooth.
Players on the Union boys basketball team are rewarded with candy bars for taking a charge.
It’s going to be like Halloween for Rainey after his performance Saturday night against Clarion.
The Golden Knights’ senior guard took three charges and also scored 16 points — 12 coming in the second half — to lead Union to a huge Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference Small School North victory over visiting Clarion, 58-46.
The win was a rush for Rainey. Now he’s looking forward to that sugar rush.
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“My freshman year, taking those charges hurt — I had a bad back,” Rainey said, smiling. “I risk my body in football and basketball for the team. I’ll do anything it takes for the team. I’ll put my body on the line.”
The charges were an emotional lift for Union. So was a big run that started at the end of the first quarter and carried into a chunk of the second to get the Golden Knights back into the game.
Clarion jumped out to an 18-8 lead with nine seconds left in the first quarter. A 9-2 run got the Bobcats that cushion.
Union is used to such situations.
“We always start slow,” Rainey said. “I don’t know why. But we’re a scrappy team and we’ll fight. We’ll fight to the very end.”
(Caden Rainey was named the Hager Paving Incorporated Player of the Game)
Union did indeed fight back, scoring the next eight points to cut the Clarion advantage to 18-16 midway through the second quarter and entered halftime deadlocked with the Bobcats at 25-25.
Payton Johnston scored 11 points in the second quarter and 14 of his team-leading 18 points in the frame.
“He’s grown up in the last three weeks or so,” said Union coach Eric Mortimer. “I can see the improvement in him. I can see it in the other kids. They were young coming in. They didn’t get to start last year at all.”
There was no slow start out of the gate in the second half for the Golden Knights.
Union used a 19-4 stretch to build a 44-29 lead with a little more than a minute remaining in the third quarter.
Clarion could never trim the lead to fewer than 10 points after that.
“Defense, we played well in the first quarter,” said Clarion coach Scott Fox. “We just didn’t well defensively in the second and that continued throughout the second half.
“They definitely out-hustled us tonight.”
That was more concerning to Fox than the loss.
“Defense — the last three of four games we’ve struggled,” Fox lamented. “Even the other night against North Clarion (in a 60-58 win) we had a good lead and we gave up a monster third quarter and a monster fourth quarter.”
Clarion (10-8, 4-2) altered its defense to try to slow Johnston down after his monster quarter, but that left things open for Rainey and Skyler Roxbury in the second half.
Roxbury added 13 points for Union.
Offensively, Dawson Smail shined again for Clarion. After being a key part of Clarion’s win over North Clarion — earning the Hager Paving Incorporated Player of the Game honors — Wednesday night, he scored 17 in the loss Saturday.
Christian Simko led the Bobcats with 18 points.
Union also got 14 big rebounds from Dawson Camper.
“This was definitely a big win for us; Clarion beat us by three the last time,” Rainey said. “We wanted to come out and show everyone we are the team to beat in the North. Payton Johnston has been stepping up. He took the pressure off me.”
Union (10-6, 6-1) played with a lot of intensity. Even the bench was in full throat and Mortimer was more animated than usual.
“We had a meeting with the guys earlier today,” Mortimer said, “We told them we have to put everything on the line right now. This is the big game we’ve all been looking forward to.”
Union has three more division games remaining, including a huge one to close the season against North Clarion on the road Feb. 16.
The Wolves are also 4-2 in the division and trail the Golden Knights, who are no all alone in first place at the moment.
“This was huge,” Mortimer said. “I hope this is a big springboard for us. Our league is tough. We have two tough ones left in North Clarion and A-C Valley.”
Rainey is looking forward to collecting more candy bars.
Just like his attitude about his point totals — “whatever it takes to get the W in the column,” he says — Rainey’s candy bar preference is also flexible.
“Whatever he buys me,” Rainey said, smiling.
Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.
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