CRANBERRY 55, KANE 44

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Feb. 19, 2009 - District 9 Class AA Boys' Semifinals

By Chris Rossetti

CLARION – Norm Felmlee picked a heck of a time to have a career night.

The Cranberry senior scored a career-high 32 points while adding six rebounds, five steals and two assists to help the defending District 9 Class AA champions, the third seed this year, pull a mild upset of second-seeded Kane 55-44 in the D9 Class AA semifinals Thursday night at Clarion University’s Tippin Gym.

“His performance was huge,” Cranberry head coach Eric O’Polka, who has now led the Berries to back-to-back PIAA playoff berths after the school had never gone to one prior to last year, said. “This year, he has had to carry that scoring load for us. And out of nowhere comes 32 points. He is averaging 11.8 per game. From 11.8 to 32 is a big difference. That is a senior stepping up in my opinion. He picked a good day to do it.”

Felmlee, who scored 21 of his points in the second half, was 11 of 13 from the floor including 1 of 2 from 3-point range while adding a 9 of 10 performance from the free-throw line.

His biggest contribution came during a game-deciding 19-5 fourth quarter run that erased a 35-34 deficit early in the quarter and gave Cranberry (12-10) a 53-40 lead with 1:20 to play. He scored 13 of the 19 points during the run including starting the run with a 3-pointer that gave the Berries the lead for good, 37-35, 34 seconds into the quarter. He also went 8 of 8 from the free-throw line during the run helping Cranberry go 14 of 15 from the line during the run.

“We knew he was their best offensive threat,” Kane head coach Brian Wymer said. “He showed up to play. He made his shots outside and also took the ball to the hoop very strong, and he had a big night. It was a good game for him.”

Kane (13-10) led 19-18 at halftime before Cranberry used a 6-0 run at the start of the third quarter to take a 24-19 lead 1:15 into the frame. Felmlee scored four points and assisted on the third basket by Shawn Hogue.

The Wolves, however, answered with a 9-0 run of their own including Bert Leonard scoring the final four points to retake the lead at 28-24.

It was then Cranberry’s turn to run going on a 10-1 spurt that including 3-pointers from Jared Burrows and Eric McVay, with McVay assisting on the first triple and Felmlee on the second one, to go back ahead 34-29 with 2:36 left in the quarter.

Kane cut the lead to 34-33 on two Tyler Smith free throws with four seconds left in the quarter, and then the Wolves took their last lead of the contest 18 seconds into the fourth quarter on a Cory Waigand jumper.

Cranberry started fast taking an early 9-4 lead thanks to seven points from Felmlee. But Kane got the lead down to one, 9-8, by the end of the quarter and then continued what became a 15-6 run into the second quarter. The Wolves actually took a 19-15 lead on a Leonard jumper with 26 seconds left in the first half before Burrows drained a momentum changing 3-pointer right before the  first-half buzzard to cut Kane advantage to 19-18 at halftime.

“We definitely came out a little flat,” Wymer said. “We didn’t have the pace that we usually do. That affected us. There were a lot of turnovers and we weren’t able to work the ball inside like we wanted to.”

Burrows added 13 points for Cranberry, while Hogue had 10 rebounds.

Waigand led Kane with 16 points but only shot 5 of 16 from the field. Leonard added 10 points.

Cranberry will now face Brockway, a 60-39 winner over Moniteau, in the District 9 title game at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27 at Clarion University.

“We were here last year,” O’Polka said. “We went through it last year and won it last year. I think that is the biggest advantage we have over anybody. We’ve been here before.

NOTES – Kane had the services of 6-foot-5 center Kenny Kane for the first time since before Christmas. Kenny Kane, who was averaging 11.8 ppg at the time of his injury, missed 14 games. He played eight minutes Thursday grabbing a couple of rebounds but not scoring … Cranberry shot 56.7 percent (17 of 30) from the field including an astonishing 81.8 percent (9 of 11) in the second half. The Berries were also 17 of 27 from the free-throw line including 16 of 23 in the second half … Kane shot 37.2 percent (16 of 43) and was 11 of 13 from the line … Felmlee’s 32 points are tied for the sixth most in a District 9 boys’ playoff game since the 2001 season.

CRANBERRY 55, KANE 44

Score by Quarters

Cranberry 9 9 16 21 – 55

Kane 8 11 14 11 – 44

Cranberry – 55

Eric McVay 1-6 3-6 6, Jared Burrows 4-7 3-4 13, Norm Felmlee 11-13 9-10 32, Shawn Hogue 1-1 0-3 2, Coleman Willison 0-2 0-0 0, Ryan O’Neil 0-1 0-0 0, Caine Mitchell 0-0 2-4 2. Totals 17-30 17-27 55.

Kane – 44

Arie Paup 2-5 2-3 6, Bert Leonard 4-11 2-2 10, Cory Waigand 5-16 5-6 16, Tyler Smith 0-1 2-2 2, Andrew Olson 2-3 0-0 4, Zack Smith 1-3 0-0 2, Kenny Kane 0-2 0-0 0, Dave Bucheit 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler Bizzak 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 16-43 11-13 44.

Three-pointers – Cranberry 4 of 8 (Burrows 2 of 3, Felmlee 1 of 2, McVay 1 of 3). Kane 1 of 8 (Waigand 1 of 4, Leonard 0 of 3, Paup 0 of 1).

Rebounding: Cranberry 27 (Hogue 10, Felmlee 6). Kane 20 (Bizzak 4, 3 tied with 3). Assists: Cranberry 9 (Willison 3). Kane 8 (Paup 4). Steals: Cranberry 10 (Felmlee 5). Kane 10 (4 tied with 2).  Fouls: Cranberry 13, Kane 22.

Officials: Scott Sullivan, Dave Blair, Dave Pasternek.