The Elk County Catholic boys basketball team is currently on a 39-game regular season winning streak.
Its last loss? A 56-54 defeat to the Bradford Owls on Feb. 13, 2018. Since then, the Crusaders have appeared in two consecutive District 9 Class A championship games — beating North Clarion for the title last year — and have won a handful of PIAA state playoff games over the last couple of seasons.
This year, ECC (15-0) has been tested several times, but has won all but two of its games by at least eight points. Over the past week, the Crusaders bested Curwensville 64-4, Ridgway 43-32 and Kane 60-52.
So, while the Owls are the decided underdogs for tonight’s 7:30 p.m. matchup at Bradford Area High School, the team can at least set its targets to keeping the game within reach heading into the fourth quarter in the hopes of pulling off the upset.
That wasn’t the case a season ago, though, as the Crusaders won their two games against Bradford by 23 and 24 points, respectively.
For the 2019-20 Bradford squad, after a 5-1 start to the season that included the dramatic double overtime win over Olean, the Owls have slipped to a 3-5 mark over their last eight games. However, those four losses (Johnsonburg, Warren, DuBois, Coudersport) have come against teams with a combined a combined 44-14 record. The schedule does get a bit easier for Bradford in terms of its opponents’ win-loss record down the stretch, and the team also closes with five of its last six games at home.
An upset of the Crusaders tonight would not only go a long way towards securing an above-.500 record on the season, and also in tilting some of that momentum back towards its favor with the postseason approaching.
— On the girls side of the hardwood tonight, Otto-Eldred visits Port Allegany in a big North Tier League matchup. The Lady Gators (12-2, 9-1) are a game back of Coudersport — their only league loss — in the standings, but were tested by the Lady Terrors (10-4, 8-2) earlier in the season. The first matchup, Dec. 18 in Duke Center, was a competitive one throughout, with Port A holding a 10-point second half lead before Otto-Eldred cut it to 53-50 with less than a minute to play. Eventually, the Lady Gators hit a couple of late free-throws to escape with a 55-50 win. Cailey Barnett had 26 points in that game, which has not been uncommon for one of District 9’s best scorers. Barnett is averaging 18.2 points per game this season, and has only failed to reach double-digits in two contests. For Otto-Eldred, its offense has run through freshman Katie Sheeler of late. Over her last nine games, she’s reached double-figures five times and has scored 34 over the last two O-E wins. Sheeler had a team-high 12 against Port A in December.
The Era will have photographers and reporters at both ECC/Bradford and O-E/Port Allegany with full coverage on our website and in Friday’s print edition.
— There’s still three full weeks of regular season basketball to be played, but it’s not too early to take a look at the potential District 9 playoff brackets. On the boys side, the top seeds in several classes are all but locked up, barring something unforeseen over the final few weeks. ECC has control of the A boys bracket, while Coudersport is the favorite in AA and has yet to lose to a District 9 opponents (its two losses came to New York’s Allegany-Limestone and Olean) and has, frankly, steamrolled its competition since those two mid-December losses. Keystone (13-1) will challenge the Falcons for that top spot, however, with its lone loss coming to St. Marys. Perennial AA boys favorite Ridgway has lost five of its last eight games after a 6-0 start.
For the Coudersport girls — which are classified as Class A, they’ll most likely end up as the second seed as unbeaten North Clarion has control of the top slot. North Clarion has won the last three D9 Class A girls championships and have yet to lose a game this season.
In Class AA, Port Allegany, Redbank Valley and Keystone all have a shot at the top seed as the field is the most competitive across D9. Five teams — including Ridgway (9-4) — have winning records in that class, while Kane sits at 7-7 on the year.
Other local teams that would most likely qualify for the postseason… should it begin today:
Class A boys: Johnsonburg (10-5), Cameron County (11-2), Otto-Eldred (9-5), Austin (8-7)
Class AA: Ridgway (9-5)
Class AAA: Kane (9-6)
Class AAAA: Bradford (8-6)
Class A girls: ECC (9-5), Otto-Eldred (10-4)
Class AAAA: St. Marys (13-3)
(Anthony Sambrotto, the Era Sports Editor, can be reached at asambrotto@bradfordera.com)
