Lady Crusaders dominate in D9-1A championship game

2024-03-04 - By Becky Polaski Staff Writer

CLARION – The Elk County Catholic Lady Crusaders put on a dominating performance in Saturday afternoon’s District 9 1A girls’ championship game at PennWest Clarion, holding Ridgway to 20 points as they cruised to a 42-20 victory.

ECC had two players in double figures in the game, with Sydney Alexander leading all scorers with 17 points and Emily Mourer putting up 10.

Kristen Ellenberger was the leading scorer for Ridgway with nine points.

ECC was able to hold Lady Elkers’ senior Jenna Kasmierski scoreless in the game.

“Our game plan was to slow her up,” ECC head coach Ken Pistner said of Kasmierski. “I think, obviously, we achieved that tonight. It takes a whole team to be able to stop somebody like that. Tori (Newton) was really good on the ball. She was coming off of a lot of screens. We did a lot of good hedges out there on defense with the second defender. We didn’t give her much room out there tonight at all. I thought that was one of the better defensive efforts we’ve had for a little while here.”

On offense, a total of six different players scored for the Lady Crusaders in the contest, with five of those players each hitting at least one three.

“It’s hard to defend when you have people that can put the ball in the basket,” Pistner said. “The last time we played them, we won by 12 or 13. We didn’t really have any runs. We played really good defense that time too, but we just didn’t put any buckets together. Tonight, we strung quite a few together. The offense was clicking, and it was just like the defense. It took the whole group.”

Alexander scored the first points of the night 1:19 into the game to put the Lady Crusaders on the board, and then the score stayed that way until just past the midpoint of the half as both teams had their share of empty possessions.

Gabby Amacher scored her only two points of the night with 3:59 remaining in the first quarter to put Ridgway on the board and tie the score at 2-all. After that though, it was all ECC.

The Lady Crusaders went on an eight-point run over the span of 1:27 and never looked back. Mourer opened the run with a bucket, and then Lucy Klawuhn and Mya Pistner each hit a three, making the score 10-2.

Ellenberger scored the next four points, first making a pair of foul shots for Ridgway followed by a field goal, but another bucket by Alexander with 53 seconds to go resulted in the Lady Crusaders holding a 12-6 lead at the end of the quarter.

Mourer and Alexander combined for four points to put ECC’s lead into double digits, 16-6, early in the second quarter. A bucket by Sophia Fullem for the Lady Elkers briefly made it an eight-point game, but Alexander quickly responded with a three to put the lady

Crusaders up 19-8.

Ellenberger scored the next four points to bring Ridgway back within seven, 19-12, but ECC ended the half with a five-point run on another three by Alexander and a two by Mourer to take a 24-12 lead into the break.

The Lady Crusades went on a 13-0 run over the span of roughly four minutes in the third quarter. Sami Straub opened the run with a three 57 seconds into the frame, and then Klawuhn hit a three. Mourer and Alexander each made a bucket, and then Alexander ended the run with a three with three minutes still on the clock, making the score 37-12.

Ridgway’s only point of the third quarter was a foul shot by Ellenberger with 36.8 seconds left on the clock.

The Lady Crusaders led by 24, 37-13, headed into the final eight minutes of regulation.

Straub and Mourer combined for four points in the first 41 seconds of the fourth quarter to put ECC two points away from kicking in a running clock, 41-13, but ECC did not try to further run up the score.

Ridgway scored the next five points, with Sara Zameroski making a field goal and then going one-for-two from the foul line, and

Fullem making her second bucket of the game.

In the final 41.6 seconds, Lena Polaski went one-for-two from the line for ECC and Fullem went two-fortwo for Ridgway, making the final score 4220 in favor of the Lady Crusaders.

Pistner noted that the team’s loss in the District 9 1A girls’ championship game last year was a disappointment and served as extra motivation for his squad to get the job done this year.

“We played decent last year, we just didn’t play well enough to win,” Pistner said. “We weren’t taking anything for granted tonight.”

The team’s six seniors, in particular, wanted to make sure they ended their careers with a D9 title this year.

“I told them how special district titles are,” Pistner said. “A lot of people never get to this point. Somewhere it said Ridgway hasn’t been to a district title game in 35 years. Good for them. That’s a good season for them, and I’m glad that they were able to get here. But it’s special to win it. I told them, don’t take it for granted. Not everybody gets this opportunity.”

The win also crossed another goal off the Lady Crusaders’ list for the season.

“It means a lot,” Pistner said. “We just talked about that. It’s one of our goals. Before the year started, everybody was talking, ‘Oh, this team can do this. This team can do that.’ We said, ‘We’re going to knock off our goals one at a time.’ We wanted to win the two leagues, and we did that. We wanted to win the holiday tournament. We did that. After we had all those, we said we’re going to focus on the district now, and we took care of that. Now, our next focus is on the next journey here, and that’s playing each playoff game like (it’s our last). And it is, you lose and you’re done. We’re going to have that mentality. It’s nice to win the district and get a nice home game in the state playoffs. That’s always a big advantage.”

The majority of the teams in the 2024 PIAA 1A Girls’ Basketball Championship will open their state playoff runs on Saturday. However, the Lady Crusaders will see their first state playoff action a day earlier. With both the ECC girls’ and boys’ teams set to face squads from Monessen, a doubleheader will be played at Elk County Catholic High School on Friday with the Lady Crusaders taking to the court first at 5:30 p.m. and the Crusaders following at 7 p.m.

Ridgway 20

Jenna Kasmierski 0-0-0-0-0, Kristen Ellenberger 3-0-3-4-9, Gabby Amacher 1-0-00-2, Emma Vargas 0-00-0-0, Grace Bon 0-00-0-0, Sara Zameroski 1-0-1-2-3, Maddie MacAfee 0-0-0-0-0, Sophia Fullem 2-0-2-2-6, Neve Washburn 0-0-0-0-0, Izzi Lawrie 0-0-0-0-0. Totals 7-0-6-8-20.

Elk Catholic 42

Sami Straub 1-10-0-5, Lucy Klawuhn 0-2-0-0-6, Tori Newton 0-0-0-0-0, Sydney Alexander 4-3-0-0-17, Emily Mourer 5-0-0-1-10, Gracee Breindel 0-0-00-0, Mya Pistner 0-10-0-3, Gina Geci 0-00-0-0, Payton Newton 0-0-0-0-0, Lena Polaski 0-0-1-2-1. Totals 10-71-3-42.