PORT ALLEGANY — The Austin Panthers were the clear-cut Cinderella story in District 9 this season, but Cameron County had no intent on letting the Panthers add another chapter to that remarkable tale on Thursday night.

The Raiders put forth a dominating effort on both ends of the ball from start to finish, defeating Austin 66-32 in the first round of the Class A playoffs at Port Allegany High School.

Before Austin could even find its footing in the school’s first playoff game since 2004, Cameron County was all over them. The Raiders jumped out to a 11-2 lead, forcing Austin head coach Rich Glover to use his first timeout. There really wasn’t much he could do to stop the Raiders’ onslaught, however, and Cameron County rolled to a 18-4 lead after one.

Caden Beldin led the first quarter scoring for the Raiders with eight points, but it was really their defensive intensity that gave Austin trouble.

CC employed a full-court press from the tip, forcing six Austin turnovers in the first quarter and 21 in the game, unofficially.  
The Raiders showed no signs of letting up in the second quarter, taking a 35-11 lead into the half and continuing an amazing defensive effort that led to plenty of easy points on the other end. The Panthers were held to single digits in the point column for the first three quarters, and had just five field goals after 24 minutes.

“They were aggressive on defense and it got us rattled early and it was just hard to recover,” Glover said. “By the time we settled in and started playing our game we were already down big.”

Cameron County had a dynamic one-two punch on the offensive end with Beldin and Adam Shaffer. Shaffer had a game-high 21 points, including a 10-point barrage in the fourth quarter. But it was the freshman Beldin who really powered the Red Raiders’ offensive output in the first half. According to Cameron County head coach Mark Guido, there was never a doubt in his mind that his young star would be ready to go in a big-time playoff game.

“Just doing what he’s been doing all year,” Guido said. “He lets the game come to him. He doesn’t force the action and when he gets opportunities he knocks them down. He’s a good shooter, good defender and a good rebounder.”

Cameron County improved to 3-0 on the season against Austin. The two teams met earlier this month, but that game was far from a good indication for how Thursday would turn out. Cameron County beat Austin 46-43 in that game, but according to Guido, it was the team’s worst shooting night of the season. This time around, his shooters got hot and he made sure the defensive intensity was amped up from the get-go.

“If we shoot the ball well, we are a pretty decent team,” he said. “The last time we played them we didn’t shoot it well, in fact we shot horribly. We also wanted to establish our defensive pressure early so we came out with a full court press and I think that bothered them a lot.”

Cameron County will play the winner of today’s Elk County Catholic and Oswayo Valley matchup in the semi-finals at a time and place to be announced. Thursday’s win does secure the Red Raiders a PIAA playoff berth.

For Austin, although it was a disappointing way to end the season, the team had a remarkable turnaround this year that marveled something from a sports film. After winning just 12 games from 2012-2017, and 19 times since 2005, Austin went 13-9 in 2018, including seven North Tier league victories. Glover, who is in his fourth season as Austin’s head coach, has been at the helm for a large chunk of that losing, so this season couldn’t be any sweeter for him.

“It feels great,” Glover said. “It is just one of those things where nobody in the league even thought we were going to be here. The only ones that thought that were our coaches and the players. They just went out and they proved it. Here we were, first playoff game in 14 years and we look forward to be back for more.”

All five starters from Thursday’s game are underclassmen and will be returning next year, meaning Austin will no longer be flying under team’s radars next season.

And that is a welcome change for Glover.

“It was a great season. I’m not going to take anything away from these boys, they played great all year,” Glover said. “This is a learning experience. We are all coming back, so this playoff game right here is something we should look forward to next year.”

AT PORT ALLEGANY

Austin (32)

Dempsey Glover 6 3-6 15, Valenti 2 2-2 7, Rees 1 1-2 3, J. Glover 1 1-3 3, P. Glover 1 0-0 2, Burgett 1 0-0 2. Totals: 12 7-13

Cameron County (66)

Adam Shaffer 8 4-6 21, Caden Beldin 8 0-0 19, M. Brown 4 0-0 10, D. Brown 3 0-0 6, T. Bauer 2 2-3 6, B. Bauer 1 0-0 2, Swartz 1 0-0 2. Totals: 27 6-9 66

Austin 4 11 17 32

CC    18 35 49 66

Three-point goals: CC 6 (Beldin 3, M. Brown 2, Shaffer 1), Austin 1 (Valenti); Total fouls: CC 17 , Austin 10; fouled out: none