ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 67, UNION-NEW CASTLE 62, OT

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March 6, 2009 - PIAA Boys' Class A First Round at Clarion University

PIAA Playoff Home Page

By Chris Rossetti

CLARION – Elk County Catholic outscored Union-New Castle 13-8 in overtime to get a 67-62 win in the opening round of the PIAA Class A boys’ basketball playoffs Friday night at Clarion University’s Tippin Gym.

ECC (21-7), which led for nearly the entire game, including a 10-point lead with 11:39 to go in regulation and by five with 1:58 to play in regulation, found itself on the wrong end of a 54-52 score following a layup by Union’s Anthony Thomas with 44 seconds left. But Nate Higgins’ offensive rebound and putback with 13 seconds left tied the game at 54.

Union had a golden opportunity to win the game with five seconds to play in regulation when David Rupprecht fouled Thomas. But Thomas missed the front end of the one-and-one, and ECC got the rebound to force overtime.

In overtime, the Crusaders got a layup from Joe Jacob followed by two free throws from Higgins to take a 58-54 lead with 2:49 to play. The game then remained a two-,three- or four-point ECC lead for nearly the remainder of overtime before Robby Wortman hit three of four free throws in the final 21 seconds to seal the victory.

ECC came out of the gates quickly using a 17-4 first-quarter run to take a 13-point lead, 23-10, with 38 seconds left in the quarter before a Thomas bucket got the Scotties to within 11, 23-12, at the end of the first eight minutes.

Union then quickly got the lead back to 13 1:20 into the second quarter and still led by nine, 30-21, with 1:57 to play before halftime. But Union got a layup from Anthony Thomas followed by a layup from Devonta Thomas to cut the gap to 30-25 at halftime.

ECC then appeared to retake control of the game through the first half of the third quarter regaining a 10-point advantage a couple of times including 39-29 following a Higgins layup with 3:39 left in the quarter.

But Union ended the quarter with a 9-1 run to close to within two, 40-38, at the end of the quarter.

The Scotties then tied the game at 40 on a Devonta Thomas layup 1:33 into the fourth quarter. It was the first of five ties in the quarter.

ECC, however, was able to get the lead back up to five, 52-47, thanks in large part to four straight Tony Chiodo free throws, the last two coming with 1:58 left.

But a layup by Jason Burkes and a 3-pointer by Nicholas Decesare with 1:12 to play tied the game at 52, and Anthony Thomas’ layup with 44 seconds left gave Union its first lead since a 4-6-5 advantage just over three minutes into the game.

Higgins had a monster game for ECC with 22 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots. Wortman actually led the Crusaders with 23 points while adding eight rebounds and two helpers. He did turn the ball over eight times though. That helped lead to 22 ECC turnovers that led to 29 Union points. Chiodo chipped in 10 points, three assists and three steals for ECC.

Anthony Thomas led Union with 20 points, while Burkes added 14 points and Devonta Thomas 10.

ECC outrebounded Union 32-21 and shot 52.3 percent (23 of 44) to Union’s 47.4 percent (27 of 57).

ECC will now take on Homer-Center, an overtime winner over VisionQuest, in the second round of the PIAA playoffs Tuesday at a site and time to be announced.

NOTES – It marks the fifth time in the last six years ECC has won a first-round PIAA playoff game … ECC will face Homer-Center for the first time since getting a 65-40 win over H-C in the 2004 PIAA first round … This is the second straight season Union’s season has ended at Tippin Gym. Last year, the Scotties fell to Coudersport 55-47 in the second round … ECC was the lone District 9 Class A team to win a playoff game Friday night. It’s the first time since 2006 that District 9 has failed to advance more than one team to the PIAA Class A boys’ second round. That year, ECC was the only team to advance to the second round. The Crusaders then went on to win their first state championship that season … ECC was 18 of 21 from the free-throw line while Union was 4 of 7. In a rare move, a neutral district’s officials were on the game. Usually in the first round, officials from the home team’s district, in this case District 9, are assigned the contest.

ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 67, UNION-NEW CASTLE 62

Score by Quarters

Union 12 13 13 16 8 – 62

ECC 23 7 10 14 13 – 67

Union-New Castle – 62

Anthony Thomas 10-18 0-1 20, Devonta Thomas 5-9 0-0 10, Nicholas Decesare 3-6 0-0 7, Jason Burkes 5-10 2-2 14, Anthony Forletta 0-0 0-0 0, Damian Trott 1-2 1-2 4, Michael Pelto 1-4 0-0 2, Matthew Ault 2-8 1-2 5. Totals 27-57 4-7 62.

ECC – 67

Matt Bauer 1-3 0-0 3, Tyler Herzing 2-4 0-0 5, Joe Jacob 2-4 0-0 4, Robby Wortman 7-9 9-11 23, Nate Higgins 9-17 3-4 22, Tony Chiodo 2-7 6-6 10, David Rupprecht 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler Healy 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-44 18-21 67.

Three-pointers – Union 4-14 (Burkes 2-3, Decesare 1-1, Trott 1-2, Pelto 0-3, Ault 0-3, A. Thomas 0-2). ECC 3-8 (Higgins 1-1, Bauer 1-2, Herzing 1-3, Jacob 0-1).