CLARION 60, KARNS CITY 48

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Feb. 7, 2008

By Chris Rossetti

CLARION – Before Thursday’s night KSAC-East boys’ basketball contest between Clarion and Karns City at Clarion High School, Clarion honored its seniors.

During the game, two of those seniors showed why they will be missed with Drew Vandermeer and Scott Larson combining to score 42 points while grabbing 17 rebounds to help the Bobcats upset Karns City 60-48.

Vandermeer, playing in his 98^th game for Clarion (11-13 overall, 9-10 KSAC-East), had a career-high 26 points while also pulling in seven rebounds, and Larson added 16 points and 10 boards.

“We came out with a bang,” Vandermeer said. “Hopefully, we carry this momentum into Tuesday night (Clarion’s District 9 Class A playoff game at Elk County Catholic). We played well as a team. It was probably one of our best games of the year.”

After a slow start, he scored five points in the first quarter, Vandermeer had the best scoring night of his career thanks to a nine-point efforts in the second and fourth quarters including a sensational tip in of a missed shot by a teammate in the second quarter when he came flying in from the top of the key to knock the loose ball into the hoop.

“This was a big game for me being that it was my last game at home, the last time I will play in this gym,” Vandermeer said. “I knew we had to perform well, and we came out with the ‘W’.”

The result of the game was surprising considering Karns City (16-8, 14-5) entered the night with a shot of winning the KSAC-East crown. The Gremlins needed a win and Union loss to two-win East Forest to claim the title, but neither happened with Union blowing out East Forest 96-50

Clarion, meanwhile, entered the game off a 57-41 loss to North Clarion and had lost 10 of 15 making some wonder why the Bobcats were going to the playoffs at all.

But it all clicked for Clarion Thursday night, as it started the game on a 13-1 run while holding Karns City without a field goal for the first 9:35 of the game. After jumping to the big lead, the Bobcats never led by fewer than nine points the rest of the game.

“I’ve been waiting for that all season long,” Clarion head coach Jim Harmon said. “We played with a lot of positive emotion tonight. It was senior night, and we had lost to Karns City 5 of the last six times, and we came out with a lot of that positive emotion.”

While Clarion was playing with a lot of positive emotion, Karns City seemed to be out of sorts thanks in part to missing it second-leading scorer Mike McConnell, who sat out the game resting an injured ankle, and Markus LaVan, its top big guy off the bench.

“Mike is a huge part of our game,” Karns City head coach Steve Andreassi said. “He is a physically strong player who can do a lot for us. In a way, without Mike on the court we had a sense of being (out of sorts).”

Whether it was the absence of Mike McConnell or just a bad night in general or strong Clarion defense, Karns City couldn’t shoot the ball straight missing its first 13 shots while connecting on just 34 percent of its shots on the night (18 of 53) including 5 of 26 (19.2 percent) in the first and third quarters combined.

“We settled for way to many threes,” Andreassi said. “When you settle for threes and they don’t fall in, you are in for a long night. We’ve beaten a lot of teams who have played 2-3-zone against us, but I have to give Jim credit. He mixed it up and didn’t play just a 2-3.”

Cameron Turner, who is averaging 22.3 ppg in his last three contests, continued his good play on offense for Karns City with 20 points, although 10 of those came in the fourth quarter after the Gremlins were down by double digits. But Turner, who had been dominating the boards as of late, was almost a non-factor on the glass getting just two rebounds as Clarion outrebounded Karns City 33-21.

Some of Clarion’s advantage on the boards came from the fact the Bobcats didn’t miss many shots which didn’t allow the Gremlins a chance to get many defensive rebounds. Clarion shot 71 percent (22 of 31) from the field thanks in large part to Larson and Vandermeer dominating inside.

“Those two have carried us all season long on offense,” Harmon said. “Being their last game in this gym, they were playing with a lot of positive emotion.”

Larson dominated early scoring six of Clarion’s first eight points while helping the Bobcats to a 13-3 lead at the end of the first quarter that grew to 17-3 before Cory Terwilliger hit Karns City’s first shot, a three-pointer a 1:35 into the second quarter.

Clarion then built the lead to 31-18 at halftime and withstood a min-run by Karns City in the third quarter that included three three-pointers including two from Turner, to lead 40-31 going to the fourth quarter.

The Bobcats then put the game away with a 10-4 run to start the final eight minutes.

Both teams are back in action next week in the District 9 playoffs.

Clarion, the No. 13 seed in Class A, will visit Elk County Catholic, the fourth seed, Tuesday, while Karns City, the top seed in Class AA, awaits the winner of Tuesday’s Brookville-Cranberry game either Friday or Saturday of next week.

CLARION 60, KARNS CITY 48

Score by Quarters

Karns City 3 15 13 17 – 48

Clarion 13 18 9 20 – 60

Karns City – 48

Dan Everetts 2 0-0 4, Cameron Turner 8 2-4 20, Matt McConnell 1 1-2 4, Evan Olszak 0 0-0 0, Cory Terwilliger 3 1-2 8, Josh Callender 1 0-0 2, Brandon Collier 3 2-3 10. Totals 18 6-11 48.

Clarion – 60

Drew Vandermeer 9 7-11 26, Cody Zacherl 1 3-4 5, Scott Larson 7 2-2 16, Ben Brady 0 0-0 0, Sheldon Miles 3 0-0 6, Joe Rearick 1 0-1 2, Cody Renninger 1 2-2 5, Derrick Craig 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 14-20 60.

Three-pointers – Karns City 6 (Turner 2, Collier 2, Terwilliger, McConnell). Clarion 2 (Vandermeer, Renninger).