By JO WANKEL

Era Sports Writer

CLARION — The stands were packed in support of both Otto-Eldred and Elk County Catholic, but only one school could come away from Super Saturday with the District 9 1A title. That team was Otto-Eldred, as Manning Splain hit one of two free throws with less than a second on the clock to put the Terrors ahead 52-51.

“I told the kids right from the get-go, the standard of basketball in D9 starts with ECC.

This was a great opportunity, we could play free,” Francis said. “Coach Straub is a great coach, he has a great staff. I told our kids, ‘We can finally not play with the pressure, the pressure is on the opposing team for once.’

“The further you go in districts and states, you gotta take it possession by possession and value the ball. We possessed the ball well, valued it well,” Francis stated. “There were a few shots where I thought they were good shots, they just didn’t go in.”

ECC put the first points on the board with two successful free throws from Frankie Smith just over a minute into the game. From there, the battle began, with the biggest lead going to Otto-Eldred, as the Terrors had a 14-7 lead with 35 seconds to go in the first.

O’Neill sank a three with 14 seconds to go, cutting that lead to four at the end of the first.

“Honestly, in the first quarter, Shene dominated. He dominated on the glass, every crucial miss we had and needed a bucket, he got the rebound and the put back and those were crucial.

He played a heck of a game,” Francis said. “We were up 14-7, O’Neill hit a 3 right at the horn. That was a huge momentum shift for them.

Before that, we were kind of having our way there a little bit.”

In the second quarter, the lead changed hands three times, with the score tying 26-26 on a rebound shot from Thomas with one minute to go. Neither team had any luck breaking that tie — until O-E’s Landon Francis sank the Terrors’ only three at the buzzer to give them the 29-26 advantage at the half.

“Everybody thinks we live and die by 3’s. I’ve been saying for the last 4 or 5 games, we haven’t lived and died by the 3. We’ve been really good at executing in end-of-quarter situations,” Francis said. “We made that three at the buzzer. I thought that we have done a really good job of that in the last month basically: executing, trying to get to the rim, get a shot off and have a chance for it to go in the basket. I thought that was key, going into halftime on that shot gave us a little bit of momentum.”

O-E found the basket first in the third with a shot from Francis 40 seconds in to put them ahead 31-26. From there, ECC whittled away at the lead with baskets from O’Neill and Wortman, and a successful free throw from Wortman as well. A three from and a basket from Simbeck pushed the Crusaders to a 37-33 lead at just over three minutes into the third.

O-E battled back to tie the score at 37-37 with two successful free throws from Splain and two from Hunter App. From there, Thomas made a basket to put O-E ahead 39-37 and to respond when ECC’s O’Neill sank a basket to tie it once again. Wortman completed a layup to tie the score at 41. Two free throws from Francis put the Terrors up 43-41 as the third quarter came to an end.

The fourth quarter continued to be a tug-ofwar, with each team refusing to give the other an advantage. The back and forth stalled with Thomas sinking a basket on a rebound from App’s shot that bounced off the rim at the 3:35 mark, tying the score at 51-51. That score held through to the end of the quarter, when Wortman fouled Splain and gave him two shots at the line.

“I had all the confidence in the world,” Francis said of Splain’s performance at the line. “He shoots at 90%, there’s no way he misses 2. He drained the first one, missed the second. We knew that gave them a chance to get the ball back, and they did when it went out. But it made them be stationary on the line so they couldn’t run. They had to throw the ball in high, and we were able to pick it off.”

Splain pulled the ball down as the buzzer sounded, officially giving O-E the 52-51 victory and the team’s first-ever District 9 1A boys title and ending a three year stint as the defending champions for ECC.

In the first round of PIAA 1A Boys’ playoff action, Otto-Eldred hosts Nazareth Prep and ECC will host Youngsville, both at 7 p.m. Friday.

“The coaching staff and I have been watching film, and we had a practice (Monday) to work on us. We have stuff we have to focus on, that we need to do better,” Francis explained. “I suspect there are going to be a lot of people in the Terror Dome Friday at 7. Nazareth Prep is a good school, they have a good program. They have won 19 games for a reason. It should be another really good opportunity and a good game.”

AT CLARION OTTO-ELDRED (52) Splain 1-5-6-7, Schenfield 1-0-0-2, Landon Francis 8-4-4-21, App 0-2-2-2, Shene Thomas 10-0-1-20. Totals 20-11-13-52. ECC (51) Simbeck 3-0-0-6, Lance O’Neill 10-3-5-28, Wortman 4-1-1-9, Briendel 3-0-0-8. Totals 20-4-6-51.

O-E 14 15 14 9 ECC 10 16 15 10 Three-Point Goals: O-E 1 (Francis), ECC 7 (O’Neill 5, Briendel 2).

Era Photo by Wade Aiken

Otto-Eldred’s Manning Splain shoots free throws Saturday, putting O-E up by one for the victory.

Era Photo by Wade Aiken