KNOX, Pa. (D9Sports) – The third time was the charm for the Karns City girls’ basketball team.
(Photo of Karns City’s Emily Hegedus. Photo by Howie Dittman. Check out more of Dittman’s work here)
After dropping the two regular-season meetings with Moniteau by a combined nine points. Lady Gremlins turned the tables on their rivals ending the Lady Warriors season with a 40-32 win Friday night in the District 9 Class 3A semifinals at Keystone High School.
Karns City, the third seed, had to rally from a 22-15 second-half deficit outscoring the Lady Warriors, the second seed, 25-10, in the final two quarters.
“Defense was a big difference,” Karns City head coach Steve Andreassi said.
Emily Hegedus again led the way Karns City as she led all scorers with 19 points. Her off balanced bucket at the buzzer to end the third quarter gave the Lady Gremlins the spark they needed heading to fourth with the game tied at 27.
“We finally had a bit of an explosion in the third quarter with 12 points, and obviously Emily Hegedus’ big shot at the end of the quarter really got our crowd and us into it,” Andreassi.
Hegedus scored 10 of her 19 in the second-half and came up with a huge block that led to a Karns City rebound up six points with 50 seconds remaining that all but sealed the victory as Livia Andreassi hit 1-of-2 free throws to extend the lead to three possessions at 37-30.
Andreassi, the coach’s daughter who scored seven points, had given Karns City (12-10) its first lead since 7-3 midway through the first quarter when she nailed a trey 4:45 remaining putting the Lady Gremlins in front 32-29.
“That’s been our problem all year when we’ve lost,” Andreassi said. “We’re not going to win if it’s just Emily Hegedus. The others don’t have to score double figures, but they have to contribute. That’s how we win, the other players have to help out your best player. We did that tonight. It was a great team win.”
Moniteau was able to take the first-half lead thanks to Emma Bair who scored all 10 of her points in the first two quarters but was shut out after halftime.
“We knew they had three players that were dangerous, but we were most concerned about Emma Bair,” Andreassi said. “We stepped up and played straight man-to-man defense in that second-half and the defense got the job done for us.”
The Lady Warriors were not able to cope well with the Karns City ball pressure in the second-half and turned the ball over 11 times while shooting just 4-for-24 over the final 16 minutes.
“We didn’t execute, and we were not disciplined,” Moniteau head coach Dee Arblaster said. “We worked on an offense for two weeks and didn’t run it.”
Moniteau was able to take a fourth-quarter lead with freshman Aslyn Pry’s putback layup with 6:30 remaining, but Olivia Mourer’s field goal followed by Andreassi’s 3-pointer helped Karns City take control for good.
“We just did not execute in the second half,” Arblaster said. “It wasn’t anything they did differently. We just didn’t execute period. Our game plan was to pound the ball inside to Emma, but there were nerves involved and the girls were tight and it is just hard to beat a team three times. I knew it was going to be.”
Alyssa Stitt added nine points for Karns City with Izzy Bair chipping in seven for Moniteau.
The Lady Gremlins will now try to win their fifth straight District 9 Championship, and second in a row in Class 3A, when they face top-seeded Brookville, who had a bye to the championship game, next week at time, place and date to be determined.
“Brookville is young, fast and aggressive with post-presence,” Andreassi said. “They’re going to get up in our face and be physical, and we have to be able to handle that pressure.”
KARNS CITY 40, MONITEAU 32
Score by Quarter
Karns City 7 8 12 13 – 40
Moniteau 10 12 5 5 – 32
KARNS CITY – 40
Alyssa Stitt 2 3-4 9, Emily Hegedus 6 7-8 19, Olivia Mourer 2 1-2 5, Livia Andreassi 2 1-2 7, Madison Kelly 0 0-0 0, Emma Clark 0 0-0 0, Sara Knox 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 11-14 40.
MONITEAU – 32
Kristin Auvil 1 0-0 3, Andie Arblaster 2 1-2 6, Izzy Bair 2 2-7 7, #23 Aslyn Pry 3 0-0 6, Emma Bair 4 0-0 10, Bailey Hartle 0 0-0 0, Alex Hartle 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 3-9 32.
Three-Pointers: Karns City – 4 – Andreassi 2, Stitt 2. Moniteau – 5 – Arblaster, Emma Bair 2, Izzy Bair, Auvil.
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