ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 57, CAMERON COUNTY 56

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Feb. 20, 2009 - District 9 Class A Boys' Quarterfinals

Kyle Detsch had 17 points to lead Elk County Catholic Friday. Photo by Paul Burdick

Cameron County's Dan Sullivan drives past ECC's Matt Bauer Friday night. Sullivan had a game-high 19 points in the loss for Cameron County. Photo by Paul Burdick

Cameron County's Jarek Holjencin dribbles down the court Friday with teammate Dan Sullivan trailing the play. Holjencin scored 12 points including a 3-pointer for the Red Raiders. Photo by Paul Burdick

ECC's Nate Higgins looks to make a move during the Crusaders win Friday night. Higgins had seven points. Photo by Paul Burdick

Some of the information for this story is courtesy of the DuBois Courier-Express

EMPORIUM – Hanging on despite some shaky free throw shooting, the Elk County Catholic Crusaders will play in another state playoff.

The sixth-seeded Crusaders held off a furious comeback by third-seeded Cameron County to earn a semifinal berth against second-seeded Keystone on Wednesday at Clarion University with a 57-56 win.

It’s the 12th straight year that the Crusaders will go to the state playoffs — District 9 sends its top four Class A finishers to the PIAA playoffs. ECC hasn’t missed the state playoffs since it lost in the Class AA semifinals to Brockway in 1997. Coincidently, that’s the last time the Rovers went to the state playoffs, until this year. Brockway will play Cranberry for the Class AA crown next Friday.

Against Cameron County, ECC jumped out to a 22-8 lead after the first quarter, led 35-23 at intermission, but led by only six, 52-46 going into the fourth quarter. But the Crusaders held on, despite making just 13 of 27 free throws in the game and 9 of 18 in the fourth quarter.

Kyle Detsch led ECC (18-7) with 17 points while Robby Wortman and Joe Jacob each reached double figures with 15 and 10 points respectively.

Dan Sullivan scored 19 points to lead Cameron County (18-5).

ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 57, CAMERON COUNTY 56

Score By Quarters

ECC               22        13        7          15        —        57

Cam. Co.        8          15        13        20        —        56

Elk County Catholic - 57

Joe Jacob 4 0-0 10, Kyle Detsch 5 7-14 17, Nate Higgins 1 5-11 7, Robby Wortman 7 1-3 15, Matt Bauer 0 0-0 0, Tony Chiodo 1 0-0 3, Tyler Herzing 1 0-0 3, David Rupprecht 1 0-0 2, Tyler Healy 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 13-27 57.

Cameron County - 56

Jarek Holjencin 5 1-1 12, Jon Lundberg 3 1-2 9, Andrew Kesterholt 0 0-0 0, Donald Catalone 3 0-2 6, Daniel Sullivan 6 6-9 19, Mike Malizia 1 0-0 3, Jason Blose 0 0-2 0, Chris Barnett 2 0-0 5, Joe Holjencin 1 0-0 2. Totals: 21 8-16 56.

Three-pointers: Elk County Catholic 4 (Joe Jacob 2, Chiodo, Herzing), Cameron County 6 (Lundberg 2, Jarek Holjencin, Sullivan, Malizia, Barnett).