BROOKVILLE, Pa. – Using a pair of 9-0 runs in the second half, Brookville won its first outright D9 League title since rejoining the league in 1999 with a 44-37 come-from-behind win over visiting DuBois.
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Watch the Raiders cut down the nets
The Raiders, who last won an outright D9 League crown in 1965 (in a tiebreaker playoff game against DuBois) before leaving for the Clarion County League/KSAC for the 1979-80 season, trailed 17-13 at halftime and 19-13 in the opening seconds of the second half.
A quick 6-0 spurt tied the game back up at 19 before DuBois tool leads of 21-19 and 23-21.
That’s when the first 9-0 run took place.
It started with an Ian Pete free throw to get the Raiders within a point, 23-22, and Brookville then took the lead for good on a Noah Peterson fastbreak layup with 55 seconds left, 24-23.
Jack Pete made a free throw to make it 25-23, and after he missed the second one Brookville was able to get a 10-second call on DuBois.
That led to a Griffin Ruhlman layup just before the third-quarter horn that gave Brookville a 27-23 advantage.
Getting the ball to start the fourth quarter, Danny Lauer drilled a 3-pointer, the only three of the game for Raiders, to make it 30-23.
DuBois was able to regain some momentum with a pair of free throws – one by Andrew Shaffer-Doan and one from Chooch Husted to get back within five – 30-25.
That’s when Brookville used another 9-0 spurt to put the game away.
Ian Pete started the run with a pair of free throws with 5:31 left before Clayton Cook scored to make it 34-25.
An old-school 3-point play by Ruhlman pushed the lead into double digits, 37-25, and two more Cook free throws made it 39-25.
DuBois hit three 3-pointers and had an old-school 3-point play in the final 2:13 to make the final score closer, but the Beavers had used three timeouts to save held-ball situations and only had one left at the end which potentially cost them a chance to get back into the game.
Ryan Kovalyak hit a pair of those threes late for the Beavers and also had the old-school 3-point play to finish with 13 points tying Ruhlman of Brookville for game-high honors.
Ruhlman was named the Allegheny Grille of Foxburg Player of the Game and talked about the win
Cook added 10 points for Brookville with Lauer scoring eight.
Al Pasternak added nine for DuBois on three first-half 3-pointers with Husted scoring eight.
Brookville finished the regular season 20-2 overall and 9-1 in D9 League action with DuBois going 16-6 and 7-3 in league play.
Both teams advance to subregional playoffs and both are already qualified for the PIAA playoffs.
In Class 3A, Brookville awaits the winner of a subregional contest between the District 5 and District 8 champions in a March 4 game, while in Class 5A DuBois will play the winner of a subregional contest between District 8 and District 10. Because both classifications take two teams from the subregional to the PIAA playoffs, Brookville and DuBois have both qualified already.
NOTES: Brookville did win a share of the league title in 2011 with Elk County Catholic … This is the 14th league title for the Raiders but only its fifth after World War II … The D9 League has been around since 1920 … DuBois was looking for its 20th title … There was no league title in 2020 when Brookville went to the PIAA Class 3A championship game because the teams in the league were split between the IU9 Bubble and the rest of the teams were not.
Griffin Ruhlman, Brookville. Photo by Chris Rossetti
NORTH CLARION 48, KARNS CITY 47
CLARION, Pa. – Collin Schmader hit a jumper with 15 seconds left, and North Clarion survived two Taite Beighley shots in the final 1.5 seconds to beat Karns City, 48-47, in the KSAC semifinals at Clarion University’s Tippin Gym.
Schmader, who hit two buckets in the final 40-plus seconds, helped the Wolves rally from a four-point deficit, 46-42, in the final three minutes.
His second basket came after Karns City was called for an illegal screen with around 30 seconds to play.
Beighley ended up with two chances to win the game for the Gremlins, but his first shot from the top of the 3-point arch hit the shot clock giving the ball back to North Clarion with 1.3 to play.
But the Wolves turned the ball over on the inbounds play giving Karns City another shot.
This time Beighley’s shot from the left side rimmed in and out at the horn.
Schmader had a monster game for North Clarion, which watched a 37-33 lead going to the fourth quarter slip away thanks to a 13-5 Karns City run, with a game-high 28 points, tying his second-best output of the season. He scored 11 fourth-quarter points.
Aiden Hartle added 12 points for the Wolves, while Josh Daum scored seven.
Beighley led Karns City with 20 points with Cole Sherwin adding 11 while hitting three 3-pointers. Luke Cramer also had 10 tallies.
North Clarion is now 15-8 on the season, while Karns City drops to 17-6.
The Wolves will face Redbank Valley in the KSAC Championship game at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, before heading to Cameron County for a 7 p.m. District 9 Class 1A quarterfinal game Friday, Feb. 25.
Karns City will head to the District 9 Class 2A playoffs and host Coudersport in a rematch of last year’s title game won by the Gremlins at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23, in the quarterfinals.
REDBANK VALLEY 57, CLARION 41
CLARION, Pa. – Starting the second quarter on a 13-0 run, Redbank Valley pulled away to beat Clarion, 57-41, in the KSAC Semifinals at Clarion University’s Tippin Gym.
The Bulldogs led by just two, 11-9, after the first quarter after Clarion’s Christian Simko beat the horn with a long 3-pointer.
But Redbank Valley came out strong to open the second quarter helping the Bulldogs build a 32-18 halftime lead.
Marquese Gardlock led Redbank Valley with 16 points with Chris Marshall adding 13, Owen Clouse nine, Mascon Cloiuse eight, and Bryson Bain seven.
Dawson Smail paced Clarion with 12 points with Simko adding nine.
Redbank Valley is now 20-3 on the season, while Clarion falls to 13-0.
The Bulldogs will face North Clarion in the KSAC Championship game at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, at Tippin Gym before awaiting the winner of the Keystone/Clarion-Limestone game in the District 9 Class 2A semifinals Tuesday, March 1.
Clarion will host an opening-round District 9 Class 1A playoff game against Sheffield at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 22, on a game that will be streamed on D9and10Sports.com.
