DUBOIS CENTRAL CATHOLIC 64, CLARION 37

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Jan. 9, 2008

By Chris Rossetti

CLARION – DuBois Central Catholic hit nine 3-pointers including five in the first quarter on its way to a 64-37 win at Clarion Wednesday night in non-conference boys’ basketball action.

The Cardinals (11-1), the RRR Roadhouse D9Sports.com third ranked team in District 9, shot 50 percent (9 of 18) from beyond the arc, including 5 of 10 in the first quarter, and 46.2 percent (24 of 52) for the game.

“When the shots are falling, it’s great,” DCC head coach Mike Nesbit said. “But we haven’t been a team that is relying on the three this year. We shoot a lot of them because of our personal. But we have also been getting to the hole very well. I’m very pleased with the way we shot the ball in the first quarter, but it concerns me that at times we took too many quick shots, the first available instead of the best available.”

Nesbit’s concerns were only evident in one of the four quarters Wednesday night, as the Cardinals struggled from the field in the second quarter shooting 26.3 percent (5 of 19).

But Clarion (6-8) couldn’t take advantage of DCC’s poor shooting in the quarter and still trailed by 14, 35-21, at halftime thanks to an off-balance, buzzer-beating 3-pointer from the left corner with two players in his face by Christian Spilman.

“The play didn’t run the way we wanted it to,” Nesbit said. “But we got the ball to who we wanted to, and Christian can do that. It certainly gave us some momentum going into halftime.”

Momentum was something that was in DCC’s corner at the start of the game when the Cardinals scored14 of the game’s first 16 points on their way to a 22-9 lead at the end of the first quarter.

“I was worried about a letdown after our win at Kane Monday night,” Nesbit said. “To avoid a letdown, we jumped into our full-court defense from the start just to get it going early. We thought it would help us avoid the letdown.”

DCC also avoided any thoughts of a second-half letdown when they started the second half on another 14-2 run to take a commanding 49-23 lead late in the third quarter.

“I thought our defense in the third quarter was really good,” Nesbit said.

DCC caused eight Clarion turnovers in the third quarter and held the Bobcats to 2 of 8 shooting in the quarter. But then again, the Cardinals defense was solid most of the night while limiting Clarion to its second-lowest point total of the season and its lowest with leading scorer Drew Vandermeer in the line-up. The Bobcats committed 25 turnovers – DCC had 15 steals – and shot 42.1 percent (16 of 38) from the field.

“We played great defense the entire game,” Nesbit said. “I thought our effort was outstanding.”

Spillman and Dom Varacallo each had four steals to lead the defensive effort, while Matt Pentz added three takeaways.

While DCC’s defense was strong, especially in the second half when Clarion made just 7 of 18 shots (38.9 percent), the Cardinals’ offense was even stronger connecting on 64.7 percent (11 of 17) of its shots in the half.  

 “I thought we worked our offensive sets much better in the second half,” Nesbit said. “We have to be a team that doesn’t rely on the quick shot to bury teams and doesn’t rely on the quick shot to get back into games. Because we either shoot ourselves out of the game or shot the other team into the game.”  

Varacallo led DCC with 19 points, while Spilman added 13 and Michael Hassan 10.

Scott Larson paced Clarion with 14 points, five rebounds and three blocked shots. Drew Vandermeer added seven points, six rebounds and four blocks, and Ben Brady had seven tallies.

DCC is back in action Saturday at Greensburg Central Catholic, a Class AA team from the WPIAL.

DUBOIS CENTRAL CATHOLIC 64, CLARION 37

Score by Quarters

DCC 22 13 14 15 – 64

Clarion 9 12 5 11 00 37

DCC – 64

Christian Spilman 5 0-0 13, Michael Hassan 3 2-2 10, Dom Varacallo 7 3-4 19, Dan McNally 0 0-0 0, Kelcey Gulvas 0 0-0 0, Will Gangewere 0 0-0 0, Zach Lewis 0 0-0 0, Max Moclock 3 1-2 8, Andy Kunkle 1 0-0 3, John Ferraraccio 2 0-0 4, Matt Pentz 1 1-2 3, Chris Marshall 2 0-1 4. Totals 24 7-14 64.

Clarion – 37

Cody Renninger 0 0-0 0, Ben Brady 3 0-0 7, Derrick Craig 0 0-0 0, Cody Zacherl 1 0-0 3, Drew Vandermeer 3 0-0 7, Sheldon Miles 1 1-2 3, Joe Rearick 1 1-2 3, Scott Larson 7 0-2 14, Gavin Griffin 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 2-6 37.

Three-pointers – DCC 9 (Spillman 3, Hassan 2, Varacallo 2, Moclock, Kunkle). Clarion 3 (Brady, Zacherl, Vandermeer).