ST. MARYS — Otto-Eldred’s Cameron Grigsby recorded a monster double-double and the 6th seeded Terrors gave third-seeded Clarion-Limestone a scare before falling to the Lions 61-58 in the quarterfinal round of the District 9 Class A playoffs Thursday night at Elk County Catholic High School.
Grigsby scored a team-high 19 points and grabbed 19 rebounds for his double-double. The performance drew praise from his coach. ”It’s the best I’ve seen him play,” said O-E’s Dan Dalton.
The Terrors led 16-11 at the end of the first quarter, but the Lions regrouped to take a one-point, 24-23, advantage into the locker room at the break. C-L used the time for adjustments, then built a 48-39 lead at the end of three and held on down the stretch to notch its 21st win of the season.
“We cut it to one with 13 seconds left, but they made a couple of foul shots,” Dalton explained.
Otto-Eldred had trouble with C-L’s top three scorers Deion Deas (15), Ian Callen (23) and Hayden Callen (13).
“They are all scorers and tough to guard,” Dalton pointed out. “The Callens are both about 6-foot-3 and can play inside and outside.”
Cole Sebastian put 12 points in the book for the Terrors who finish the season 11-10.
“We were a young group who really came together late in the year,” Dalton pointed out.
AT ST. MARYS
Otto-Eldred (58)
Chase Sebastian 2 0-0 4, Sheeler 2 0-1 4, Cameron Grigsby 7 5-6 19, Jimerson 2 0-0 6, Cole Sebastian 5 0-0 12, Maholic 2 0-0 5, Merry 3 0-0 8. Totals 23 5-7 58
Clarion-Limestone (61)
Deion Deas 6 2-2 15, Laugand 2 1-2 5, Wiles 1 0-0 2, Ian Callen 10 0-0 23, Goheen 1 1-6 3, Hayden Callen 6 0-2 13. Totals 26 4-12 61
O-E 16 23 39 58
C-L 11 24 48 61
Three-point goals: Otto-Eldred 7 (Jimerson 2, C. Sebastian 2, Maholic, Merry 2), C-L 5 (Deas, I. Callen 3, H. Callen)
Total fouls; O-E 12, C-L 14; fouled out: C-L (Wiles)
Elk Catholic 61, Austin 38
ST. MARYS — Eighth-seeded Austin put up a battle early, but Elk Catholic’s overall depth and experience came to the top and the No. 1-seeded Crusaders rolled to a 61-38 victory in the quarterfinal round of the District 9 Class A playoffs Thursday at St. Marys High School.
The Panthers trailed by only five at the end of the first period, 15-10, but the Crusaders got things together, turned up their defense a notch and led 29-16 at the break.
Elk continued the push in the second half outscoring the Panthers 32-22 to nail down their 24th win of the season.
“This was a good win,” said Elk coach Aaron Straub. “It was a good start tonight against a talented and hard-working Austin team. They were quick and are a very good shooting team.”
Leading the Crusaders scoring were Regis Wortman with 15 points, Alec Wehler with 13 and Carter Lindemuth with 11.
Despite the win, Straub didn’t have any problem finding areas that have to be worked on.
“I felt that we stood and watched a lot tonight instead of going to the boards. We turned it over an uncharacteristically large amount of times and we did not put ourselves in a position to shoot free throws. On the other hand, we fouled away from the basket and put them on the line. We certainly need to work on a couple of areas.
“I am looking forward to cleaning some things up with our zone offensive attack and looking forward to our games next week. This is the time of the year that the goal is to win and advance. I am proud of our team for the great regular season but now we need to focus on the district tournament,” he emphasized.
Elk Catholic will face Johnsonburg next Tuesday in a rematch of last year’s Class A title game.
Jackson Glover’s 12 points and Dempsey Glover’s 11 led the Panthers who finish the season 12-11.
AT ST. MARYS
Austin (38)
Jackson Glover 5 1-1 12, Dempsey Glover 4 3-3 11, Valenti 3 2-4 9, Burgett 1 0-0 3, Rees 1 0-0 2, P. Glover 0 1-2 1, Totals 14 7-10 38
Elk Catholic (61)
Wortman 7 1-1 15, Alec Wehler 6 0-0 13, Carter Lindemuth 5 0-0 11, O’Leary 1 0-0 2, Hoffman 1 0-0 2, Uberti 2 0-0 4, Schneider 3 0-0 6, Breindel 3 0-0 8. Totals 26 1-1 61
Austin 10 16 28 38
ECC 15 29 41 61
Three-point goals: Austin 3 (J. Glover, Burgett, Valenti), ECC 2 (Lindemuth, Wehler).
Total fouls: Austin 6, Elk Catholic 12; Fouled out: Austin (D. Glover)
