CLARION, Pa. – Every once in a while there is a season when everything comes together.
For Clarion-Limestone that season was this season.
A team that even its coach didn’t think would be more than a couple of games better than .500 raced its way to the District 9 Class 2A title with a 68-54 win over Otto-Eldred Saturday night at PennWest Clarion’s Tippin Gym.
“I didn’t see this coming,” C-L head coach Joe Ferguson said. “Starting out the season we felt we were a little over .500 team just based off the skill level of the players, I’ve been blessed with a lot of solid players through the years. But the team didn’t play together like this team. This is probably by far the best team, and it’s not disrespect to teams in the past but the bottom line is these guys, we ended up nine deep. And every kid contributed Across the board, any given night, and, hopefully, you saw that”
Rewatch the game
That was definitely the case Saturday, as eight different Lions scored led by 18 points from birthday boy Rylie Klingensmith and 11 from Jordan Hesdon.
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Hesdon said. “Thankfully, we went out and got it.”
Jack Craig added nine points in the victory with Jase Ferguson and Jack Callen each scoring eight points for the Lions, who won a D9 title for just the third time in school history and for the first time since 2015 when they took home the 1A title.
C-L (25-2) led 32-25 at halftime and 49-40 going to the fourth quarter before getting the lead to double digits.
But Otto-Eldred charged hard and was within five, 52-47, following an old-school 3-point play from Shene Thomas, who had a game-high 22 points, with 5:58 to play.
The Lions, though, answered with a 9-0 spurt that became a 16-4 run that put the game away.
“We always come out and play like the scoreboard is zero-zero,” Klingensmith said. “If they come up a little bit, we don’t let it get to us. We just keep playing tough-nosed defense and get back and get buckets.”
Watch the full postgame interviews with Hesdon, Klingensmith, and Alex Painter, who chipped in five tallies.
Landon Francis added 14 points for Otto-Eldred (23-2) with Manning Splain scoring nine.
Both teams advance to the PIAA playoffs. C-L will play Bishop Canevin, the fourth-place team out of the WPIAL. The Crusaders were the Class 1A state champions last season. Otto-Eldred will face Greensburg Central Catholic, the third-place finisher out of the WPIAL. Both of those games are home games for the D9 teams.
