RIDGWAY — For one half, the Clarion Bobcats basketball team made a game of it against the host Ridgway Elkers on Wednesday night in the first round of the District 9 Class A playoffs.

The Elkers led just 20-15 at halftime as they struggled to get their offense going and the Bobcats made as many 3-pointers, three, as deuces.

But Ridgway quickly took control in the third quarter as junior point guard Josh Roselli got more aggressive and the Elkers went on to a 58-32 win. 

The Elkers (17-6) play Friday in the quarterfinals against No. 3 Cameron County at St. Marys. Cameron beat the Elkers 44-43 Dec. 9 on a 70-foot, buzzer-beating shot by Red Raider guard Dylan Clingan.

Roselli scored Ridgway’s first seven points of the third on an Elkers 7-3 run to make it 27-18 with 5:22 left.

Roselli’s forays into the paint then turned into better opportunities for senior guard Joe Horning and sophomore forward Jeremy Breier.

Horning had seven of his nine points in the third quarter and Breier scored six of his game-high 21 in the third.

“Josh certainly wasn’t getting any shots to go down in the first half and then we became stagnant,” Elkers head coach Tony Allegretto said. “But once he started getting good penetration and got some shots to go down, it started opening things up for the others.”

The Elkers continued to build the lead and it was up to 17 points, 40-23, with five seconds left on a driving layup by Horning.

Clarion’s Antonio Troese beat the buzzer with a 3-point shot from beyond half court to make it 40-26, but it did nothing to stop the Elkers from slowly widening the gap in the fourth quarter.

Ridgway scored six of the first eight points of the fourth to make it 46-28 with 3:59 left.

Roselli hit one of two free throws, then Dustin Cowan scored on a fastbreak before Bobcat Brendan Miller scored to make it 43-28.

But Breier drove the baseline and scored, then Horning hit one of two shots from the stripe to make it an 18-point game.

Ridgway was 12 of 17 from the line in the game, including 10 of 14 in the fourth quarter. Roselli hit 7 of 8 to lead the way.

Clarion led 8-6 after one quarter as Ellis Painter scored five points, including a 3, and Taylor Smith added a 3.

But the Cats scored just seven in the second while Breier had nine by himself and the Elkers scored 14 to take a five-point lead at the break.

Steve Smathers hit a 3 while Troese and Miller scored baskets.

Roselli hit a 3-pointer with 2:28 left in the second to give Ridgway its largest lead of the first half at 16-10.

Defensively, Allegretto was pleased with how things went.

“We did some different things to keep them off-balance and it was a solid performance for us,” Allegretto said.

Painter, who hit two 3-pointers, led the Bobcats with 10 points. Troese had seven, Miller scored six and Smith five.

NOTES: Ridgway is 11-0 when scoring 50 or more points this season. … The Elkers, in 23 games, have allowed opponents to score more 50 points just twice and both times were to defending D-9 Class A champ Johnsonburg. The Elkers have held 11 opponents to 32 points or less. …Clarion (11-12), which had a late start to the season after its football team reached the Western Finals, began the season Dec. 18 and were just 1-4 before January. But the Bobcats recovered and were 6-3 since Jan. 30. One of those games was a 63-58 win over No. 2 Clarion-Limestone Feb. 3, the highlight of the season. … Clarion’s 26-point loss was its sixth of at least that many points.

CLARION (32)

Antonio Troese 3 0-0 7, Taylor Smith 2 0-0 5, Cody Hearst 0 1-4 1, Brendan Miller 3 0-1 6, Steven Smathers 1 0-0 3, Damien Cherico 0 0-0 0, Ellis Painter 3 2-4 10, Levi Barger 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 3-9 32.

RIDGWAY (58)

Jeremy Breier 10 1-2 21, Josh Roselli 4 7-8 17, Ben MacDonald 2 0-0 4, Joe Horning 3 3-5 9, Dustin Cowan 2 0-0 4, Josh Lineberger 1 0-0 2, Mason Stark 0 0-0 0, Cody Delhunty 0 1-2 1, Cory Oknefski 0 0-0 0, Nate Steis 0 0-0 0, Phil Waddell 0 0-0 0, Mike Sorge 0 0-0 0. Totals: 24 12-17 58.

By Quarters

Clarion   8  7  11  6—32

Ridgway 6 14  20 18—58

Three-point FGs: Three-pointers: Clarion 5 (Painter 2, Troese, Smith, Smathers); Ridgway 2 (Roselli 2).