CLARION – For the past 10 years the District 9 Class AA boys
basketball championship has been brought to you by the letter
‘K’.
Kane continued the trend of the winning school beginning with
‘K’ as the Wolves captured their first Double-A title since 2000
with a 54-49 win over Smethport at Tippin Gymnasium on Friday.
“This is great,” said Jeff Labesky, Kane head coach. “It’s my
third year as head coach, but my 13th in the program. It’s also
nice to avoid Aliquippa early.”
Kane (16-10) will face District 7’s No. 5 seed on Saturday,
while Smethport (21-5) draws the top-ranked Quipps the same
day.
“We have another challenge,” said Jay Acker, Smethport’s 5th
year head coach. “We will be playing the No. 1 team in the state in
Double A. It gives us something to look forward to.
The Hubbers, who are having their finest season ever, jumped out
to an 8-0 lead on two free throws by Devon Baumgardner, a bucket by
Zak Kossack and two more baskets from Matt Johnson.
The Wolves finally scored on a layup by Sean Perry with 2:37
left in the first quarter and that seemed to inspire the No. 3 seed
to a 14-12 deficit at the end of one.
“Traditionally we start out slowly and it takes our guys three
or four minutes to get going,” Labesky admitted. “Once we get our
legs we’re all right, but we usually play from behind.”
The Hubbers opened a 23-14 bulge on a 3-pointer from the left
corner by Kossack with 3:36 remaining in the half.
The lead was 26-21 when the Wolves’ Tyler Labesky drilled three
free throws and then Smethport was “punk’d” just before the buzzer
when Mike Punk’s triple gave Kane a 27-26 advantage at the
intermission.
“That (3-pointer) was big and got us our first lead,” Coach
Labesky recalled. “Smethport was in a zone which was a surprise, so
we had to make some adjustments. We started to get some good looks
and that was a big shot by Punk at the end of the first half.”
It was Kane’s turn to take a big lead as the Wolves commenced
the third quarter with a 7-0 run.
The Wolves then enjoyed their largest margin of the evening when
a Zach Anderson steal led to a Punk lay-in and a 40-31 score with
2:29 left in the period.
Trailing 41-36 after three, the Hubs cut the deficit to 41-40 on
layups by Justin Smith and Matt Luther.
After John Bizzak muscled his way in for a pair of layups, Matt
Johnson canned a rainbow ‘3’ from the top of the key to cut the
Kane lead to 48-47 with 1:23 showing.
Anderson and Cory Waigand then drilled both ends of their
one-and-ones for a 52-47 difference with 39 seconds left.
A lay-in by Luther 12 seconds later made it 52-49 and then the
Wolves, who were 20-of-23 from the foul line on the night, actually
missed the front end of a one-and-one that left the door open for
the Hubbers.
“We concentrated on our free throw shooting this week because we
knew it was going to be a tight game,” Labesky stated. “We figured
it would come down to free throw shooting.”
Acker couldn’t help but agree.
“Did they miss one?,” Acker asked of Kane’s free throw shooting.
“It was unbelieveable. Late in the fourth quarter we wanted to send
them (Wolves) to the foul line and stop the clock, but obviously
that didn’t work.”
With about six seconds remaining Luther had an open look for a
game-tying three from the left wing, but the attempt bounced off
the rim and into Bizzak’s hands and the Hubbers had no choice but
to foul him.
“I don’t know if they put a lid on the basket or what,” said
Acker. “We had a lot of shots that looked good from my vantage
point and they were either a little long or a little short. We had
a lot of good looks and didn’t make them.”
Bizzak, who was already 8-for-8 from the charity stripe, calmly
sank the two free throws at the other end to seal the victory. The
6-4 junior finished with a game-high 18 points.
“He (Bizzak) was over-anxious early, rushed some things, and
then got into foul trouble,” Labesky noted. “He’s a smart kid and
had a better second half.”
Punk added 15 points for the Wolves
For Smethport, Smith and Johnson had 13 apiece and Luther had 10
points.
