By Nate Ritchey

nritchey@altoonamirror.com

CLAYSBURG — When Claysburg-Kimmel and McConnellsburg met on Jan. 3 for their only regular season matchup, the Spartans reeled off the first 17 points of the game en route to a 30-point lead at the end of one quarter of play.

The two schools squared off on Friday night in the semifinals of the Inter-County Conference tournament.

C-K was determined not to suffer the same fate, and for the first half, it was right in the game.

Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, the Spartans from early January emerged from the halftime locker room and quickly took control in handing Claysburg a 77-36 loss.

“That first half was absolutely one of the best that we’ve played — we cut it to three at one point in the second quarter,” Claysburg-Kimmel coach Mike Harris said. “When we played them down there, it was 32-2 at the end of the first quarter.”

The Bulldogs, representing the East division due to winning a tiebreaker over Tussey Mountain, came ready to play this time and led 6-2 in the early going on 3-pointers by Brayden Haney and Christian Treon.

“We weren’t even supposed to be here — we got here and the kids earned it,” Harris said. “This is the first time in school history we’ve ever played in the ICC’s, so I’m proud of them for that.”

McConnellsburg, the South division champs, knotted it at 6-6 before a Haney driving layup at 3:21 gave Claysburg-Kimmel its last lead of the night.

The Spartans reeled off an 11-0 run on six points from Brayden Ramsey, who led all scorers with 23 points, and five by Dom Jefferson, who finished with 16, to grab an 17-8 edge.

Three free throws by Haney got it back to six to close out the first quarter.

A Kohen Hall jumper for McConnellsburg and Haney layup kept the margin at six (19-13) to begin the second stanza before a 7-0 spurt by the Spartans helped them doubled up the score at 26-13.

A Blake Kulick trey was followed by a Haney driving layup down the right side of the lane made the score 26-18 with 2:47 left on the clock.

The basket not only got the deficit back into single digits but also was a milestone one for the Bulldog junior.

Entering the contest, Haney needed 11 points to tie the Claysburg-Kimmel all-time scoring mark of 1,300 points set by Ryan Ritchey back in 1999.

The driving layup gave him points number 11 and 12 on the night to put him alone in front as the new record holder.

“It feels good — it’s a good accomplishment,” Haney said. “Just seeing that hard work does pay off.”

Haney finished the evening with 19 points, which has him sitting at 1,308.

C-K kept the momentum going as Treon put together a 6-1 run of his own with back-to-back makes from downtown to pull his team within three (27-24) with 1:37 to go before the half.

McConnellsburg closed with the final seven points to take a 34-24 advantage into halftime.

Haney drilled a 3-pointer 21 seconds into the third before the Spartans tightened the screws defensively and used that to spark themselves on a 25-4 burst throughout the frame.

“We made sure to put a bigger emphasis on defense (in the second half), locking Haney down because he’s a really good offensive player,” McConnellsburg coach Josh Lowery said. “(Number) 12 (Treon) was hitting shots and we put an emphasis on him as well. It worked because we held them (Claysburg) to six total points in the second half before we got our starters out.”

When the third quarter final buzzer sounded, Claysburg-Kimmel had gone from being down seven and still very much in the game to looking up at a 59-31 massive deficit.

McConnellsburg forced 12 C-K turnovers as they trapped all over in the halfcourt. Not to mention it forced Haney to give the ball up, or not get it at all, way more than the Bulldogs are comfortable doing.

“They (McConnellsburg) are a tremendous team with so much ball pressure,” Harris said. “They put so much ball pressure tonight that (our) guys couldn’t breathe. That’s what good teams do.”

Ramsey, Jefferson and Hoyt Glenn, who ended his night with 13 points, combined for 19 of the 25 Spartan points in the third.

The fourth quarter proved to be a formality as a Ramsey layup just 19 ticks into the stanza made the score 61-31 and kicked the mercy rule running clock into effect.

The Spartans outscored Claysburg by a 43-12 difference in the final two quarters.

Claysburg-Kimmel, making the first appearance in ICC tournament in school history, fell to 12-11 and will start the District 6 Class 2A playoffs on Tuesday as the seventh seed at second-ranked Portage at 7 p.m.

McConnellsburg, now 21-1, will play North Star, a 72-44 winner over West Branch in the first semi, today for the championship with the tip scheduled for 2:15 p.m.

CLAYSBURG-KIMMEL (36): Haney 6 5-6 19, Knisely 0 0-0 0, Kulick 2 0-0 5, C. Treon 3 0-0 9, Cory Walter 0 0-0 0, G. Treon 0 0-0 0, Cole Walter 0 0-0 0, Bass 0 0-0 0, Fee 1 0-0 3, Mock 0 0-0 0, Dively 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 5-6 36.

MCCONNELLSBURG (77): Earley 3 0-0 7, Jefferson 7 1-2 16, Glenn 5 1-2 13, Ramsey 8 5-7 23, Hann 3 1-2 7, Hall 1 0-0 2, Fletcher 1 0-0 3, Clevenger 0 2-2 2, Washabaugh 1 1-2 4, Lang 0 0-0 0. Totals: 29 11-17 77.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Claysburg-Kimmel 11 13 7 5 — 36

McConnellsburg 17 17 25 18 — 77

3-point field goals: Claysburg-Kimmel 7 (C. Treon 3, Haney 2, Kulick, Fee); McConnellsburg 8 (Glenn 2, Ramsey 2, Jefferson, Earley, Fletcher, Washabaugh).

Records: Claysburg-Kimmel (12-11); McConnellsburg (21-1).