CLARION 44, EAST FOREST 40

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Dec. 17, 2008

By Chris Rossetti

CLARION – A 25-11 second-half run lifted the Clarion girls’ basketball team to a 44-40 win over visiting East Forest in a KSAC-North game Wednesday night.

The Lady Cats (3-3 overall, 3-1 KSAC-North) trailed 21-18 following a layup by East Forest’s Kelsey Rini with 3:26 left in the third quarter, but scored the next 10 points and ended the quarter ahead 30-23.

Junior guard Skyler Ganoe played a key role in the run scoring five points, including three from the line and netting seven of her team-high nine points in the third quarter.

“The run was keyed by Skyler because of her speed,” Clarion head coach Roger Walters said. “We talked about making (East Forest) a strong team when you let them run back and set up a zone. We couldn’t do that. We had to push on them and push on them. For a lot of the game we really couldn’t because of so many made baskets or turnovers. We wanted to get the first rebound and push it out hard. You get Skyler the ball in the open court and let her push, she is going to make good things happen.”

East Forest (2-4, 1-3) was able to close back within four points, 30-26, on a Rini basket with 5:45 left in the game. But Clarion answered with a 13-6 spurt to take its biggest lead of the game, 43-32, on a free throw by Tiff Smathers with 1:25 left.

The Lady Bears had one last run left in it ending the game on an 8-1 run, but any hopes of closing the gap completely ended when freshman Erica Long missed the second end of a two-shot foul with 1.5 seconds left leaving the game at a two-possession contest.

It was probably fitting that the comeback ended on a missed free throw considering East Forest was 7 of 23 (30.4 percent) from the line in the game including 5 of 13 in the second half. Rini was the guiltiest party shooting 4 of 13 from the line.

“That (free-throw shooting) has hurt us for the past several years,” East Forest head coach Jerry Thornton said.

Rini’s poor free-throw shooting kept her from having another big game. She finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots, but was held without a basket in the first half, when she scored just two points.

“We kind of got lucky at times,” Walters said. “We wanted to give her some more room when she was in the high post, but we didn’t do that. But we had some guards backing down on her (doubling her) from behind. She gave up the ball pretty quick when we sent that second guard in from the side.”

East Forest’s offense actually seemed to work better after Rini fouled out of the game with 4:04 to play. The Lady Bears scored 12 of their 40 points and made five of their 16 shots in the final 3:49.

“We don’t center (our offense) on Kelsey,” Thornton said. “But the other girls just feel compelled to (get it) into her. We want to try to run the motion offense. We did it the first half. We just can’t get the continuality. Part of that is because of the number of freshmen (we are playing).”

While East Forest didn’t shoot well from the line, Clarion was solid by its standards shooting 16 of 23 from the charity stripe including hitting 10 of 12 in the first three quarters.

“It’s a guessing game sometimes,” Walters said about his team’s up-and-down free-throw shooting. “We did one thing different at practice this week. Whether it did anything or not, who knows? But we are back here in our gym. We usually shoot better in our gym. We needed them. Skyler (Ganoe) hit some big ones.”

Kaitlin Roth, celebrating her 17^th birthday, tied Ganoe for team-high honors with nine points for Clarion including a three-pointer. The Lady Cats used a balanced effort with eight players scoring.

Ashley Oliver added eight points for East Forest, while Nicole Geyer had seven points and seven rebounds.

“The kids play hard,” Thornton said. “That’s the big thing. The intensity is there. We are still gelling as a team.”

NOTES – Clarion has now won 13 straight homes games. The Lady Cats last home loss came 54-50 in overtime to Karns City Feb. 14, 2007. They went 11-0 at home last year and are 2-0 at home this season.

CLARION 44, EAST FOREST 40

Score by Quarters

East Forest 4 10 9 17 – 40

Clarion 8 6 16 14 – 44

East Forest – 40

Morgan Simpson 0 0-0 0, Jenna Harriger 0 0-0 0, KayDee Armstrong 0 0-0 0, Kayla Ruddy 0 0-2 0, Nicole Kahle 2 0-0 4, Erica Long 2 0-0 4, Danielle Kirkwood 1 0-0 2, Kelsey Rini 3 4-13 10, Lauren Oliver 2 0-1 4, Nicole Geyer 3 0-0 7, Ashley Oliver 3 2-5 8. Totals 16 7-23 40.

Clarion – 44

Bri Nellis 0 0-0 0, Karla Peterson 0 2-2 2, Brittany Hanlon 0 0-0 0, Skyler Ganoe 2 5-6 9, Kaitlin Roth 3 2-2 9, Kelly Peterson 0 0-0 0, Kelsey Beichner 2 1-2 5, Kara Durkin 1 0-0 3, Tiff Smathers 1 3-6 5, Abby Heller 0 0-0 0, Karyn Larson 2 2-4 6, Mary Divins 0 0-0 0, Liz Shannonhouse 2 1-3 5. Totals 13 16-23 44.