TIONESTA — It wasn’t easy, but the Kane girls basketball team helped its head coach pull off an impressive career milestone on Thursday.
After jumping out to a 27-12 halftime lead, the Lady Wolves held off a fierce North Clarion comeback to pull off a 44-39 victory, their eighth straight.
The victory also marked the 200th in the coaching career of Dave Kiehl, who has been at Kane since 2010; Kiehl also has an additional 95 coaching victories at East Forest.
Kiehl certainly had his hands full in the second half, as North Clarion (10-4) went on a 14-6 run in the third quarter to give the Lady Wolves a scare.
Ella Marconi, who finished with a team-high 17 for Kane, had to sit for most of the third period because of foul trouble. North Clarion capitalized on plenty of those opportunities, going a perfect 13-for-13 in the game and sank all 11 of its attempts in the second half.
In the end, Kane (13-3) did enough down the stretch and got contributions from Emily Bucheit (12 points) and Hannah Buhl (10) to seal the victory.
“We were never behind but they gave us all we wanted in the second half,” Kiehl said. “This was very good experience for my young sophomores.”
AT TIONESTA
KANE (44)
Ella Marconi 7 3-4 17, Emily Bucheit 4 0-0 12, Hannah Buhl 3 1-2 10, A. Marconi 2 0-0 4, Swanson 0 1-2 1, Koza 0 0-1 0. Totals: 16 5-9 44
NORTH CLARION (39)
Gatesman 3 9-9 17, Schmader 4 0-0 8, Bauer 3 2-2 8, Manross 1 0-0 2, Carll 1 0-0 2, Sherman 0 2-2 2. Totals: 12 13-13 39
Kane 10 27 33 44
N.Clarion 6 12 26 39
Three-point goals: Kane 7 (Buhl 3, Bucheit 4), N.Clarion 2 (Gatesman)
Port Allegany 60, Northern Potter 28
ULYSSES — Cailey Barnett poured in 17 points and Bree Garzel added 13 to lead Port Allegany to lopsided North Tier League victory Thursday.
The Lady Gators (12-4, 8-4) jumped all over NoPo early, taking a 23-4 lead after the opening eight minutes.
Port Allegany held Northern Potter’s biggest offensive threat, Abbi Anderson, to just one field goal through the first three quarters.
“We wanted to focus on Anderson,” Port A head coach Jamie Evens said. “She scored a lot late (Anderson finished with 19), but I was happy with that effort defensively.”
Away from the ball, Barnett had six rebounds and eight steals, while Garzel had four assists.
“We are moving the ball well and passing much better than we were at the beginning of the season,” Evens added.
Shannon Curfman contributed six rebounds and four points for the Gators.
AT ULYSSES
PORT ALLEGANY (60)
Sprankle 2 2-3 6, Stauffer 2 0-2 4, Bree Garzel 4 3-5 13, Preston 0 1-2 1, Daniels 2 1-2 5, Cailey Barnett 7 0-0 17, Evens 2 0-0 4, Curfman 1 2-6 4, Lannager 3 0-3 6. Totals: 23 9-23 60
NORTHERN POTTER (28)
Abbi Anderson 6 6-9 19, Cady 2 0-0 4, Hyde 0 1-2 1, Copp 1 0-0 2, Hoopes 0 2-2 2, Zdrojewski 0 0-1 0. Totals: 9 9-14 28
Port Allegany 23 35 50 60
Northern Potter 4 11 14 28
Three-point goals: Port 5 (Garzel 2, Barnett 3); NoPo 1 (Anderson).
Total fouls: Port Allegany 14, Northern Potter 21 ; fouled out: Burchell, Bliss (NoPo)
JV: NoPo won
Cameron County 55, Austin 17
AUSTIN — The Lady Red Raiders were strong on both sides of the ball and improved to 11-2 in the NTL. Austin fell to 0-13. No further information was available to the Era.
