Defense Spurs Karns City Girls Hoops to Win at Keystone

Chris Rossetti

Chris Rossetti

Published January 27, 2016 5:16 am
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KNOX, Pa. — Defense has been the hallmark of the Karns City girls’ basketball program for a  long time.

Listen to the archived game broadcast

And it was a second-quarter defensive spurt by the Lady Gremlins that led them to a 47-38 win over Keystone in KSAC South action Tuesday night at Keystone.

Trailing the shorthanded Lady Panthers, who were without Josselin Geer and dressed just eight players, by one, 14-13, two minutes into the second quarter, Karns City turned up the defensive pressure forcing four turnovers in a span of less than two minutes to kickstart an 11-0 run that helped give the Lady Gremlins a 14-point, 34-20, halftime lead.

“Coach always says our defense is going to win us game,” Karns City senior star LeeAnn Gibson said. “Our offense isn’t that great, especially our halfcourt offense. But if we can get turnovers, we are good.”

LeeAnn Gibson’s younger sister, Alyssa, played a key role in Karns City grabbing the first-half lead, scoring 12 points and grabbing eight rebounds in the half on her way to a double-double with 12 points and 11 boards.

“She definitely hit a lot of threes and a lot of shots at the beginning of the game to get us the lead,” her proud older sister said. “It’s so nice that all of our players can score, because teams can’t come into us saying they have one scorer just guard her like we can do with some of the other teams. It’s definitely nice that everyone on the team can score.”

Karns City put three players in double digits with Emily Hegedus scoring 10 points to go with eight rebounds and LeeAnn Gibson joining her sister with a double-double of 13 points and 14 rebounds.

But if you ask the senior who is committed to Slippery Rock next year about her game, she wasn’t very happy with herself, especially her 5 of 10 performance from the free-throw line.

“Coach said it was going to be all about rebounds,” LeeAnn Gibson said. “I feel that was the only good part about my game today. I couldn’t hit  foul shot to save my life. But I got some rebounds for the team.”

With the Gibson’s combining for 25 rebounds, Karns City out rebounded the hosts 43-36 including 18-12 on the offensive glass.

Down the 14 at the break, Keystone rallied after halftime starting the second half on a 10-2 run thanks to seven points from Amber Hess, who finished with a game-high 18 points, to cut the Karns City lead to just six, 36-30, halfway through the third quarter.

But, again, it was the Lady Gremlins defense that stemmed the Keystone onslaught.

Karns City forced three turnovers in the span of two minutes to take the lead back to double digits, 42-32, with a minute-and-a-half left in the quarter, and the Lady Gremlins still led by eight, 42-34, at the end of the quarter.

That lead then grew back to as many as 13, 47-34, at the midway point of the fourth quarter.

Karns City’s advantage may have even been greater if the Lady Gremlins could have hit foul shots.

KC was just 9 of 23 from the line on the night.

“That’s not common at all,” LeeAnn Gibson said. “Actually, in our last four or five games, we hardly missed any at. So, hopefully it was just an off night.”

NOTES — Taylor Geer finished with 12 rebounds and six points for Keystone … Karns City shot 34 percent for the game (17 of 50) but was just 4 of 18 in the second half … Keystone shot 26.5 percent for the game and was just 6 of 24 after the break … Karns City is now 15-2 overall and 11-0 in the KSAC South, while Keystone dropped to 12-5, 8-4 in conference play … Both teams are back in action Friday with Karns City hosting Union and Keystone traveling to Moniteau.

Story by Chris Rossetti

KARNS CITY 47, KEYSTONE 38

Score by Quarters

Karns City 13 21 8 5 — 47

Keystone 10 10 14 4 — 38

KARNS CITY — 47

Alyssa Gibson 5-11 0-3 12, Abby Wolfe 2-6 0-1 4, LeeAnn Gibson 4-14 5-10 13, Emily Hegedus 3-11 2-7 10, Mackenzie Craig 3-6 2-2 8, Brooke Moore 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 17-50 9-23 47.

KEYSTONE — 38

McKenzie Byerly 0-3 1-2 1, Kaci Weaver 2-13 0-0 6, Taylor Geer 2-10 2-2 6, Amber Hess 6-12 5-6 18, Tessa Weaver 1-4 0-0 2, McKenzie Hovis 2-6 0-0 5. Totals 13-49 8-10 38.

THREE-POINTERS — Karns City 4-15 (A. Gibson 2-5, Hegedus 2-7, Wolfe 0-2, L. Gibson 0-1). Keystone 4-19 (K. Weaver 2-8, Hess 1-5, Hovis 1-3, Byerly 0-3).

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