BROCKWAY 32, CRANBERRY 29

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Feb. 27, 2009 - District 9 Class AA Boys' Championship Game

Photo by Eric Elliott

2009 District 9 Class AA Boys' Championship Game Photo Gallery

By Rich Rhoades

CLARION – In a game of ugly proportions, it took a picture-perfect 3-point shot from the corner to win it for the Brockway Rovers.

The drought is over.

The Rovers’ got a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from sophomore guard Cody Anderson in a 32-29 victory over Cranberry in the District 9 Class AA boys’ championship game at Clarion University’s Waldo S. Tippin Gymnasium Friday night.

Brockway (15-10) clinched its first district title in 14 years in the lowest scoring District 9 boys’ championship game since at least 1983, or as far back as current records indicate.

No matter, the Rovers celebrated as hard as any team would regardless of the score.

“It doesn’t matter if we win by one or three, it’s still a win,” said Cody Anderson, who scored his first points of the night on the game-winner.

“Honestly, I didn’t think that we would be able to (win) and score 32 points,” said Nick Anderson, the sophomore guard who dished the ball to the other Anderson for the shot.

By the way, those two Andersons, along with yet another, senior guard Craig, are not related, unless you count them all having the same championship plaque.

“An amazing feeling, I can’t even express how I feel. It’s just crazy,” Nick Anderson said.

And it was a crazy game. The Rovers led 20-16 at halftime and extended that lead to 26-16 on Mark Shannon’s shot in the paint with 5:08 left in the third quarter.

Then 11:20 later, the Rovers tied it at 29-29 on Nick Anderson’s three-pointer with 1:48 remaining.

Yes, over 11 minutes without a point and still managing to win a title.

Despite the lengthy dry run by the Rovers, Cranberry could only muster a 13-0 run. Norm Felmlee’s basket put the Berries up 27-26 with 3:15 left in the fourth and Shawn Hogue added two free throws with 1:57 left to increase the lead to 29-26.

But Nick Anderson’s shot tied it and Cranberry tried to work the clock on its own to take the lead. Instead, Felmlee was called for an offensive foul with 39.8 seconds left.

Brockway ran it down to 10.3 seconds before calling a timeout to set the game-winning play.

“It was the play that Nick scored the three on,” Brockway head coach Kurt Becker said. “He comes off the pick set by Mark (Shannon), and he reads the defense. He takes the shot or goes to the hoop on the pick and roll. Cody and Craig (Anderson) are on the other side. Nick just made a great read. He penetrated, drew everybody in to him and made the great decision to hit Cody, and Cody wins it with his one shot of the night, but it was a big shot.”

That’s exactly how it happened.

“We ran a high pick and roll and coach wanted the ball in my hands and trusted me to make the play,” Nick Anderson said. “I tried my best and watched the defense. When the guy stepped (in) on me, I just gave it to the open man and Cody knocked down the shot.”

The game-winning shooting Anderson took just his third shot of the game and made his first.

“The play was made for Nick to drive in and kick it out to me or Craig and I happened to be the one open,” Cody Anderson said. “He kicked it out to me and it was the last shot we could take. I just threw it up and was feeling it the whole way through.”

His way of saying it was money.

“I felt it the whole way through and I was like, ‘It’s going in,’” he finished.

Cody Anderson’s game-winner turned out to account for almost 10 percent of the Rovers’ points, one-quarter of their 12 second-half points and half of their six fourth-quarter points.

Again, style points not necessary in winning a title game.

“We told the kids all year long we want to play hard defense, tough defense and try to dictate the tempo, push in transition, smart when we can and be patient on offense,” Becker said. “Cranberry came out with a great defensive game plan. They shut us down in a lot of areas. They took a lot of things away from us. The kids stayed patient and did the things we needed to do. They never gave up. They just kept going. If it was going to be a 32-point game, it was going to be a 32-point game. They were going to play hard on defense. On their last possessions, we made a great defensive stand.”

The Rovers led 8-5 after the first quarter and stretched it to 17-10 in the second quarter with a 6-0 run that included two technical free throws by the Rovers’ Nick Anderson — Brockway’s only two from the charity stripe of the game — with 2:20 left in the first half.

Cranberry head coach Eric O’Polka was whistled for a technical foul when he left his bench area and walked beyond halfcourt and nearly in front of the Brockway bench to try to get the officials’ attention while his team had the ball during live-ball action.

But the Berries got it back to within four when Hogue’s putback was ruled to have beaten the halftime buzzer.

Felmlee scored 14 points to lead the Berries (12-11) while Hogue finished with 10 points.

Nick Anderson was the only double-figure scorer for the Rovers with 13 points. Shannon, the team’s top scorer coming in, scored six points while playing through some sickness.

NOTES: It’s the Rovers’ sixth district title and first since 1995 when a run of four Class AA crowns in five years came to an end. Brockway also won the Class A title in 1975. … The 61 total points in the game was the lowest amount of points in a District 9 title game, boys or girls, since Bradford’s 29-21 win over Punxsutawney in the girls’ Class AAAA Championship game in 1984. The lowest known total points in a title game occurred the year before between the same teams in another Bradford win, 24-23. … Since the 1991-92 season, the Rovers have never scored as few as 32 points and won any game. The closest time came in 2004-05 when they beat Curwensville, 35-30, for one of their two wins that year. … Next up for the Rovers: the WPIAL fifth seed, either Quaker Valley or Aliquippa, next Saturday at probably Clarion University. If Jeannette beats North Catholic in the WPIAL finals, it’ll be Quaker Valley. If North Catholic wins, the Rovers will play Aliquippa. Next up for the Berries: the WPIAL eighth seed, either Beaver Falls (if Jeannette wins) or Washington (if North Catholic wins) in a PIAA play-in game on Tuesday at a WPIAL site and time to be announced.

BROCKWAY 32, CRANBERRY 29

Score By Quarters

Cranberry      5          11        7          6          -           29

Brockway       8          12        6          6          -           32

Cranberry – 29

Eric McVay 0-6 0-0 0, Jared Burrows 2-5 0-0 5, Norm Felmlee 6-16 0-1 14, Shawn Hogue 2-4 6-10 10, Coleman Willison 0-1 0-0 0, Ryan O’Neil 0-0 0-0 0, Caine Mitchell 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 10-32 6-11 29.

Brockway – 32

Craig Anderson 2-5 0-0 6, Aaron Shaffer 1-4 0-0 2, Mark Shannon 3-6 0-0 6, Nick Anderson 5-12 2-2 13, Cody Anderson 1-3 0-0 3, Derek Buganza 0-0 0-0 0, Mike Vervoort 0-2 0-0 0, Mark Robinson 1-3 0-0 2. Totals: 13-35 2-2 32.

Three-pointers: Cranberry 3-10 (Felmlee 2-3, Burrows 1-3, McVay 0-4), Brockway 4-11 (Cr. Anderson 2-5, Co. Anderson 1-2, N. Anderson 1-1, Vervoort 0-1, Shannon 0-2). Rebounds: Cranberry 27 (Felmlee 8), Brockway 19 (N. Anderson 5). Turnovers: Cranberry 9, Brockway 8.