2010 DISTRICT 9 GIRLS' BASKETBALL PLAYOFF PREVIEW

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By Chris Rossetti

Wide open. That would be the best way to describe the 2010 District 9 girls’ basketball playoff fields, as no clear-cut favorite has emerged in any of the three classifications.

CLASS A

In Class A, defending champion Elk County Catholic (20-4) is the top seed, but the Lady Crusaders don’t necessarily come in as the clear-cut favorites and have shown some chinks in their armor going just 3-3 in their final six games leading into the playoffs including a 40-37 loss Saturday to Kane in the AML Championship game. However, all four of ECC’s losses have come against teams from higher classifications (2 to Class AAA St. Marys, 1 Class AAA Punxsutawney, 1 Class AA Kane).

ECC, which won just its fourth District 9 title and its first since 1989 last year, has just one returning starter from its title team in 1,000-point scorer Emily Detsch, who is the fourth-leading scorer in District 9 at 17.5 points per game.

The Lady Crusaders could get challenged by pretty much any of the top seven or eight teams in the 15-team field including last year’s runner-up and 2008 champion No. 3 seed Coudersport (16-6), who has been to four straight Class A title games, and last year’s third-place team and the 2008 runner-up No. 2 seed West Forest (19-3).

Coudersport suffered a midseason season-ending injury to leading scorer Delanie Cowburn, the regaining All American Awards & Engraving D9Sports.com Rookie of the Year, who was averaging 14.7 ppg but has gone 7-2 since her injury and 16-3 since a 0-3 start. A big reason for that is the play of Jenna Matzinger, Hannah Fink and Tori Brown. Matzinger is averaging 13.7 ppg since Cowburn’s injury, Fink is adding 11.8 ppg since the injury and Brown 10.6.  On the year, Matzinger averages 11.1 ppg (23^rd in D9), Fink 10.8 (26^th in D9) and Brown 8.6.

West Forest brings back four starters from last year’s third-place team, and all four were key players as sophomores in the Lady Indians run to the D9 title game. Geena Sneeringer, the fifth all-time leading scorer in District 9 history with 1,932 career points leads West Forest. She ranks third in District 9 in scoring at 19.9 ppg. Also back for the Lady Indians are Alyssa Dreihaup, Amanda Carll and Rachel Greathouse. All three of West Forest’s losses have come to Class AA teams including twice to Cranberry and once to Keystone.  

Fourth-seeded Otto-Eldred (16-6) ended Coudersport’s 69-game North Tier League win streak last week, and the Lady Terrors feature a matchup problem inside with 6-2 senior center Taylor Thomas (11.5 ppg), the 18^th leading scorer in D9. Thomas has at least 10 games of double-digit rebounds and seven of five or more blocks this season.

Union (14-7), the fifth seed, is also lurking in the weeds. The Lady Damsels, who won three straight titles from 2005-2007, have won four in a row and five of six heading into the postseason. Of their seven losses, two came by a total of six points to Class AA Moniteau with another two coming against Class AA Cranberry and Keystone and yet another against Class AAA Clearfield. Union has fallen just twice to Class A opponents losing to Clarion early in the season and West Forest two weeks ago. Leading the Golden Damsels are Brooke Pollack (13.4 ppg), the 11^th leading scorer in District 9, and Tina Lipps (12.2 ppg), the 13^th leading scorer.

Sixth-seeded Port Allegany (14-8) holds a win over Otto-Eldred but does not have a player scoring in double digits, while seventh-seeded Clarion (13-9) owns a win over Union and a couple of four-point losses to Class AA No. 1 seed Cranberry. The Lady Cats are deep with six players averaging at least six points per game led by Kaitlin Roth’s 10.2 ppg.

A couple of the intriguing first-round games include the 9-8 game with Austin traveling to north Clarion and the 10-7 game with DuBois Central Catholic visiting Clarion. Both contests occur at 7 p.m. Tuesday and feature some of the better players in the Class A field.

No. 9 Austin (12-10), who has qualified for the PIAA playoffs in each of the last two seasons, is led by the eighth leading scorer in District 9 in Katelyn Valenti (15.1 ppg) and D9’s 16^th leading scorer Emily Wambaugh (11.8 ppg), while No. 8 North Clarion (13-9) showcases the district’s seventh-leading scorer and a 1,000-point career scorer in Jess Tarr (15.8 ppg) and the district’s 12^th leading scorer in Karlee Cyphert (12.3 ppg).

 DCC (11-12), the 10^th seed, has one of the best big players in D9 in Miller Hopkins, who ranks ninth in scoring at 14.4 ppg while adding 14.6 rpg. She will be challenged by Clarion’s Kelsey Beichner (6.2 ppg) inside.

Clarion-Limestone (8-12), the 11^th seed, could be a sleeper to make a run. The Lady Lions have two of the Top 30 scorers in District 9 in freshman Kianna Laugand (11.4 ppg, 19^th in D9) and senior Olivia Pinson (10.7 ppg, 28^th in D9) and also feature Jade Walker, who missed eight games with an injury but is back and averaging 11.1 ppg including 10.2 ppg in her nine games since the injury.

Class AA

The Class AA field is only four teams deep, but any one of the four is more than capable of winning the title.

Top-seeded Cranberry (20-3) is the defending champion, while second-seeded Kane (20-4) was runner-up last year. But third-seeded Moniteau (14-9) just took Cranberry to overtime in the KSAC title game Saturday, while fourth-seeded Keystone (14-8) features probably the top freshman in District 9 in Morgan Johnson and lost by just a deuce to Moniteau Wednesday.

Cranberry, whose losses all came early in the year to non-District 9 teams North East, Mt. Pleasant and Greenville, has won 17 straight games and is looking to continue a trend that has seen either the Lady Berries (twice despite not entering D9 until 2005) or Karns City (six times) win every District 9 Class AA title since 2002.  

Senior Hannah Heeter, a 1,000-point career scorer and the second-leading scorer in District 9 (20.4 ppg) leads the way for Cranberry. Heeter, who is also averaging over 13 rebounds per game, has recorded 20 double-doubles on the season.

Kane, who ended a 20-game losing streak to Elk County Catholic with a 40-37 win in the AML Title Game over the Lady Crusaders Saturday, have replaced the school’s all-time leading scorer Bree Bergman who graduated last year, with a team concept that features six players averaging 6.7 ppg or more led by Andrea Saquin’s 10.4 ppg. The Lady Wolves enter the playoffs on an 8-game win streak and have won 11 of 12.

After a slow start to the year, Moniteau was 6-8 after 14 games, the Lady Warriors have gotten stronger as the season has progressed winning 8 of 9 to close the year including eight straight before losing in the KSAC Title Game in overtime to Cranberry Saturday. Jenna McCorry (10.9 ppg) and Alex Guercio (10.7 ppg) lead Moniteau, which averages just 41.5 ppg, the 21^st best mark in District 9 and the fifth worst among playoff teams.

Keystone has had the opposite streak of Moniteau. The Lady Panthers started the year 12-4 but have gone just 2-4 since. The loss of senior Sam Schwabenbauer (8.4 ppg) to a season-ending injury didn’t help things for Keystone. But Johnson, the sixth-leading scorer in District 9 (16.0 ppg) has shown the ability to lead the Lady Panthers.

Class AAA

Two-time defending champion and top-seeded St. Marys (20-2) sports the District’s best player in junior guard Kayla Hoohuli, but the Lady Dutch have not had an easy go of it against the other two teams in the Class AAA field Punxsutawney and Clearfield.

No. 2 Punxsutawney (11-11) beat St. Marys 62-59 Monday and No. 3 Clearfield (15-7) has twice taken leads into the fourth quarter against the Lady Dutch before Hoohuli has taken over the game and led St. Marys to victory each time.

Hoohuli could be the difference maker. She leads District 9 in scoring at 29.8 ppg and is the sixth all-time leading scorer in District 9 history with 1,850 points. But scoring isn’t the only part of her game. She also adds 8.8 rpg, 7.3 spg, 4.6 apg and 3.1 bpg. No other St. Marys player is in double figures, though. Amanda Simbeck adds 9.1 ppg and freshman Adair Gennocro 8.0 ppg.

Punxsutawney started the year 3-8 but has finished 8-3. The Lady Chucks, however, followed up the big win over St. Marys by falling to Clearfield Wednesday before beating Bradford Friday.

Five players average at least six points a game for Punxsy led by Hannah Neal’s 12 ppg, the 14^th best mark in D9. Jenna Reitz (9.7) and Shawna Cargo (9.1) give the Lady Chucks three players over nine points per contest.

Clearfield has had a rollercoaster year starting 6-1 then losing 5 of 8 before rebounding to win 6 of 7 with the lone loss coming to Elk County Catholic. The Lady Bisons feature a pair of players in the Top 21 in D9 in scoring in Madison Sopic (19^th at 11.4 ppg) and Gwenn Porter (21^st at 11.3 ppg), while Amber Byerly chips in 9.8 ppg.