RIDGWAY 58, UNION 56

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Feb. 24, 2010 - District 9 Class A Boys' First Round

Some of the information for this story was found in the Feb. 25 editions of the Ridgway Record and the DuBois Courier-Express

RIMERSBURG – On any other night, 11^th-seeded Ridgway’s 58-56 upset win over sixth-seeded Union would be the story of the night.

But unfortunately for the Elkers (14-10), their upset occurred on the same night that 15^th seeded Clarion-Limestone knocked off second-seeded North Clarion 51-50 in overtime.

Nevertheless, Ridgway became just the third team seeded 11 or higher in District 9 since 1999 to win a first-round game when sophomore Eric Matheson hit a baseline jumper with 27 seconds left to give Ridgway 57-56 lead. Ben Jaques then hit a free throw to make it 58-56 with five seconds left after the Elkers had stolen the ball after they had missed the front-end of a one-and-one.

Ridgway led by as many as 14, 40-26, midway through the third quarter thanks to a 14-2 run in the quarter. But Union (15-8) answered with 19-4 run at the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth quarter to take a 45-44 early in the final quarter.

The Golden Knights got the advantage up to 50-46 before Ridgway tied the game at 52 with less than five minute to play. From there, the game went back and forth before Matheson put Ridgway ahead for good after Union couldn’t control a rebound of a missed free throw by Jacques and the ball went out of bounds to the Elkers.

Matheson led all scorers with 19 points while Jaques and Dom Aiello each added 11.

Scott Booth paced Union, which was without starter Zach Smith (injury) with 15 points to end his fantastic career with 1,673 career points. Logan Mortimer added 12 for the Golden Knights.

Ridgway will now face third-seeded Elk County Catholic in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Friday at ECC. It will be the second meeting in a week between the two clubs and the third of the year. ECC beat Ridgway 35-32 in the AML Semifinals last Friday after knocking off the Elkers 64-40 in the season opener Dec. 11. Both of those games were also at ECC.

NOTES – Ridgway won a playoff game for the first time since advancing to the semifinals in 2006. That year, the Elkers won three D9 playoff games beating Northern Potter in the first round, upsetting second-seeded DuBois Central Catholic in the quarterfinals and knocking off A-C Valley in the consolation game after losing to Coudersport in the semifinals. Ridgway qualified for the PIAA playoffs that year losing to Duquesne in the first round.

RIDGWAY 58, UNION 56

Score by Quarters

Ridgway            12        14        18                    14 — 58     

Union     10        12        17                    17 — 56

Ridgway – 58

Eric Matheson 9 0-0 19; Ben Jaques 4 2-3 11; Aaron Sorge 2 0-0 4; Dom Aiello 5 0-0 11; Jordan Lundin 3 1-2 7; Kevin Marnatti 0 0-0 0; Jesse Reynolds 0 0-0 0; Alex Oknefski 2 0-0 4; Beau Bellotti 0 0-0 0; Louie Stilwell 1 0-0 2. Totals: 26 3-5 58.

Union – 56

Brady Pollock 2 1-2 5; Shawn Booth 4 0-0 9; Logan Mortimer 5 1-3 12; Shawn Burns 0 0-0 0; Taylor Smith 1 0-0 2; Derek Shirey 0 0-0 0; Scott Booth 5 5-7 15; Trent Corle 4 1-2 11; Chase Johnston 0 0-0 0; Aaron Graham 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21 8-14 56.

Three-pointers: Ridgway 3 (Matheson, Jaques, Aiello). Union 4 (Sh. Booth, Mortimer, Corle 2).