EMPORIUM, Pa. – Trailing by four early in the fourth quarter, Cameron County closed the game on a 16-4 run to earn a 50-42 win over Port Allegany in the inaugural North Tier League semifinals.
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Braylon Button’s jumper put Port Allegany (13-10) up 38-34 with 6:40 to play, but Cameron County (20-3) had the answer.
The Red Raiders took the lead for good on Josh Smith’s 3-pointer with 5:36 remaining.
“Grit, that’s what it comes down to,” said Cameron County’s Ryan Shaffer. “We kept battling and kept working hard.”
See Shaffer’s full interview:
Jake Causer hit a pair of shots from the charity stripe with 2:32 to play to get Port Allegany back within two, 42-40, but Cameron County responded with a 6-0 run on buckets from Josh Beer, Smith and Maddox Baughman to essentially put the game away.
The Red Raiders shot just 9-of-24 from the free-throw line, allowing the Gators to stay within striking distance.
“We’re down, we can’t find anything, we can’t get anything going, we’re missing layups, we’re missing free throws, we’re not shooting well from the outside, so we got a couple different lineups in there and we pressured,” said Cameron County coach Marcus Brown. “We forced them into mistakes and were able to turn them into points.”
The game was vastly different from the two regular season meeting, wins of 28 and 25 points by the Red Raiders.
Port Allegany jumped out to an early 10-5 lead, but Cameron County followed with a 10-0 run, with Smith and Shaffer both hitting 3-pointers.
The lead was eight, 27-19 at halftime for Cameron County, and they extended it to 31-19 early in the third quarter.
Port Allegany responded with a 17-4 run. Jarrod Funk and Isac Amell started the rally with back-to-back 3’s, and Nick Wilfong and Funk closed it with 3’s, the latter of which gave the Gators a 36-33 lead going to the fourth quarter.
Smith finished with 13 points, Shaffer 11, Beer nine and Landen Farren eight for Cameron County.
Amell had 11 points, Funk nine and Causer seven for the Gators.
“I thought we played pretty well,” Babcock said. “We didn’t really get to the line much. With our big men, I’d like to see us get inside more, but overall, we played well. Would still have liked to sneak out of here with a win though.”
Cameron County will face Otto-Eldred in the title game at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17, at Bradford High School.
OTTO-ELDRED 72, COUDERSPORT 34
DUKE CENTER, Pa. – Otto-Eldred had no trouble with Coudersport in the inaugural NTL semifinals beating the visiting Falcons, 72-34.
The game started out at a quick pace with the Terrors (22-1) taking a 22-14 lead at the end of the first quarter.
But while Otto-Eldred was able to maintain the scoring pace, Coudersport (12-11) was not being limited to 20 points the rest of the game including 10 in the second half.
The Terrors took a 41-24 halftime lead and then outscored the Falcons 27-4 in the third quarter to put the game into the Mercy Rule.
Brax Caldwell (22 points) and Manning Splain (21 points) both broke the 20-point mark for Otto-Eldred with Landon Francis adding 12 tallies, Shene Thomas 10, and Davey Schenfield seven.
Reilly Streich led Coudersport with 13 points with Micah Batson adding seven.
