COUDERSPORT 61, DUBOIS CENTRAL CATHOLIC 51

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Feb. 21, 2008 - District 9 Class A Boys' Championship Game

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Photo by Paul Burdick - http://pburdick.dotphoto.com

By Chris Rossetti

CLARION – For the first time in 12 years, the District 9 Class A boys’ basketball championship plaque is heading north of St. Marys.

And it is being taken there by the last North Tier League team to claim the crown, Coudersport.

The Falcons won their, and the NTL’s, first District 9 Class A title since 1996 with a convincing 61-41 win over defending PIAA Western Region champion DuBois Central Catholic Thursday night at Clarion University’s Tippin Gym.

“It’s huge for all these kids, especially the seniors,” Coudersport’s eighth-year head coach Chris Fink said. “We have a group of four seniors in particular who have been playing together since they were so young and getting together over the summers. We added fifth one here a couple of year ago, and he picked up right with those others seniors. To see that all the work they put in has paid off is great.

“To me, it’s a lot of hard work over the last eight years for the coaching staff as well. We knew we were going to have to beat some good teams. Coming into the season, we thought five or six teams could win it this year. I’m just happy our guys came out and got the job done tonight.”

One of Coudersport’s seniors, John Hau, had a magnificent game for the Falcons (27-0) despite playing with a completely torn ACL. Hau had a game-high 16 points while adding eight rebounds, two assists and two steals.

“He is one of my favorites,” Fink said. “The kid has come really far in a lot of areas of his life. This just shows what kind of a competitor he is. He had no doubt when he was told that (his ACL) was torn that he was going to play until we were done this year. I just have a lot of respect for him there.”  

Thanks to the 6-foot-3 Hau and 6-foot-6 senior Blair Heimel, who had 12 points and 11 rebounds despite some second-half foul trouble, Coudersport was able to dominate inside outscoring DCC (26-3) 28-14 in the paint while outrebounding the Cardinals 42-36.

“That was our goal,” Fink said. “I think we still wanted to get it to Blair inside there a little more than we did, but our goal was to go inside and it was probably a goal for them to keep it out of the paint. But we did a good job all around.”  

Fink especially praised his guards who handled DCC’s pressure fairly well – the Falcons did have 20 turnovers but also had some transition baskets as well.

“I thought a key was out guards handling a little ball pressure,” Fink said. “We don’t see a whole ton of ball pressure throughout the season. So being able to handle the quickness of their guards was a key.”

Coudersport also clamped down on DCC defensively forcing 18 Cardinal turnovers while allowing DCC to shoot just 24.1 percent (13 of 54) from the field including 3 of 20 from 3-point range.

“I thought our guard played extremely well on defense tonight,” Fink said. “They have some guys, especially (Christian) Spilman that if you step of them they can hit the three but you are also afraid that he is going to blow by you as well.”  

Spilman, who came into the game needing three points for 1,000 in his career, seemed to be pushing for the milestone a bit in the first half. From quick, long-range 3-pointer right off the opening tip-off to some long-range shots that didn’t even hit rim, Spilman, who has become DCC’s scoring leader since Dom Varacallo has been limited by a torn ACL of his own, struggled all night from the field. He finished the game 4 of 20 shooting including 2 of 11 from 3-point range. He did score his 1,000^th point on a free throw with 36 seconds left in the first half, but he had only four points at the half with DCC trailing 27-14 at the break.

Spilman came out strong in the third quarter scoring eight of his team-high 14 points in the quarter, but Coudersport used an 13-3 run in the quarter to break open a 22-point lead, 45-23, with 2:58 left in the quarter.

DCC cut the deficit to 18, 47-29, by the end of the quarter and then got as close as 16, 50-34, on a 3-pointer by Varacallo, who had seven points, early in the fourth quarter. But the DCC magic at Tippin Gym, in each of the past two Cardinal playoff games at Tippin they had rallied from double-digit deficits in the fourth quarter to win including this year’s D9 semifinals and last year’s PIAA semifinals, wasn’t too be.

Derek Burdick added 14 points and seven rebounds for Coudersport, while Colton Corey had nine points and five boards.

NOTES – Both team advance to the PIAA Playoffs. Coudersport will face the fourth-place team out of District 6, which will be either Harmony or Homer-Center, while DCC, which made its run to the PIAA title game last year as the No. 4 team out of District 9, will take on the second-place team out of District 10, which will be either Kennedy Catholic or Iroquois … Coudersport’s 20-point margin of victory ties for the fifth largest margin of victory in a Class A championship game since 1986, while Hau’s 16 points tie for the 11^th most in a Class A title contest since 2001 … This is Coudersport’s fifth District 9 title … Coudersport’s girls’ team also won the District 9 title Thursday night meaning that for the first time since 1996 both a District 9 boys’ title and a District 9 girls’ title reside at Coudersport at the same time. In fact, it is just the third time in District 9 history that one school has held both the girls’ and boys’ Class A titles at the same time (D9 has been playing a girls’ championship since 1978). In 1989, Elk County Christian won both titles … The last time Coudersport entered a District 9 title game unbeaten was 1991 when it lost to ECC 65-58. Fink was a member of that Falcon squad … Before winning Thursday night Coudersport had gone 0-3 in D9 Class A title game since winning the 1996 champions … Coudersport beat four-time defending champion ECC 40-38 in the semifinals Tuesday night … Coudersport is one of just six schools to have won a District 9 Class A title in the past 25 years (ECC has won 15, Keystone has won 3, Clarion, Coudersport and North Clarion 2 each and Northern Potter 1), and Coudersport is one of just four schools to have won titles since 1991 (ECC, Clarion and Keystone are the others) … DCC was looking for its first D9 Class A title since 1976 ... Heimel now has 990 career points. 

 COUDERSPORT 61, DUBOIS CENTRAL CATHOLIC 41

Score by Quarters

Score by Quarters

DuBois CC 4 10 15 12 – 41

Coudersport 15 12 20 14 – 61

DuBois Central Catholic (26-3) – 41

Christian Spilman 4-20 4-5 14; Dom Varacallo 3-11 0-0 7; Taylor Pentz 1-2 4-7 6; Chris Marshall 2-3 0-0 4; Max Moclock 1-2 2-2 4; Will Gangewere 1-3 1-2 3; Michael Hassan 1-5 1-2 3; John Ferraraccio 0-5 0-0 0; Matt Pentz 0-2 0-2 0; Kelcey Gulvas 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 13-54 12-20 41.

Coudersport (27-0) – 61

John Hau 7-11 1-1 16; Derek Burdick 5-8 2-3 14; Blair Heimel 5-8 1-3 12; Colton Corey 2-10 4-8 9; Justen Kinder 2-3 0-1 4; Eric Babcock 1-4 1-2 3; Nate Minor 1-3 0-0 3; Brett Whitman 0-1 0-0 0; Andrew Mickle 0-1 0-0 0; Kevin Wolfinger 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-50 9-18 61.

Three-pointers –DuBois Central Catholic 3-20 (Christian Spilman 2-11; Dom Varacallo 1-8; Max Moclock 0-1), Coudersport 6-13 (Derek Burdick 2-4; Blair Heimel 1-2; Colton Corey 1-2; John Hau 1-2; Nate Minor 1-1; Kevin Wolfinger 0-1;  Eric Babcock 0-1).