The Daily News from Huntingdon, Pennsylvania • Page 3

Page 4 THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2007 SPORTS THE DAILY NEWS, HUNTINGDON. PA District Five Boys Class AA Basketball Championship: lussey Mountain and North Star both after 10th titles By TERRY BOWSER Sports Editor Tussey Mountain and North Star are no strangers to District Five championship play. Both will be going for their 10th titles when they square off Friday night in the Class AA final at the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown Sports Center. The second half of a title twinbill is slated to tip off at about eight o'clock. The top-ranked and defending champion Titans are 21-4 and riding a six-game win streak, while the third-seeded Cougars are 21-5 with five straight victories.

Only the champion advances into the 32-team PIAA Boys Class AA field. Friday's 6:30 opening game matches top-seeded Berlin and second-seeded Northern Bedford for the Girls Class A crown. Dave Bailey is just two wins from reaching the 600 plateau in his storied 34-year coaching career at Tussey Mountain. He has guided the Titan program to eight of its previous nine district crowns and goes into this year's finals with a 598-275 benchmark. The Titans won the Sideling Hill League championship this winter and opened postseason play with a tough 41-38 overtime victory over SHL rival Everett.

After going 5-19 last season under Kevin Nichlow, North Star has turned it around under fipt-year head coach Jack Loya. The Cougars defeated Rockwood 55-48 to capture the West- PAC championship and then surging to a 24-13 EC AC South Region Quarterfinal: JC defense stops Bethany 72-62 By WALLYMclLROY Contributing Writer Juniata's first ever appearance in the ECAC South Region tournament proved to be a successful one last night. The fourth-seeded Eagles turned in a defensive gem as they defeated fifth-seeded Bethany College 72-62 at Memorial Gym. The Eagles now stand at 17-11 as this year's squad has produced the second-most wins in program history. That win total included an earlier 76-64 victory over Bethany (19-9) in the championship game of the Mutual Benefit Doc Greene Tip-Off Tournament Nov.

18 at Juniata. The Eagles move on to Friday's semifinals in Erie when they will take on top-seeded Penn State-Behrend (20-7), a 76-46 winner over visiting Grove City (16-13) last night. Drew Seker scored 17 points and Dan Ziegler and Justin Kovac 15 each to lead a balanced Behrend attack. In Wednesday's other ECAC South quarterfinals, second-seeded DeSales downed No. 7 Gwynedd-Mercy 88-77 and third-seeded Lebanon Valley bested No.

6 Carnegie-Mellon 84-75. DeSales and Lebanon Valley will meet in Friday's other semifinal. Coming off last Saturday's heart-breaking loss to Widener in the Commonwealth Conference finals, one had to wonder what was left in the tank for the Eagles. But, as champions usually do, they dug deep and held the high-scoring Bisons to more than 20 points below their season average. "It was as difficult a task as I've had in getting ready fjor, this game," noted head coach Greg Curley.

"But, it says an awful lot about our character and I am excited that these seniors can walk off this floor as winners. They certainly deserve it." Both teams started out cold from the field and points were hard to come by as Bethany (19-9) held what would be its last lead of the game at 16-15 with just over seven and one-half minutes to play in the half. Juniata then got things rolling as Brent Ferko got the crowd going with a steal and a breakaway jam, sparking the Eagles to an 18-4 run to close out the half and a 33-20 lead as they went to the locker room. The Bison came out firing to open the second half and used the three-point shot to cut the deficit to 39-36 in the first six minutes. The Tussey Mountain duo of Aaron Chamberlain and Neil Holloway then scored back-to-back buckets for the Eagles to stretch the lead back to seven and Juniata went on to lead by as many 12 before setting the final margin at 72-62.

Curley even had the opportunity to remove his seniors as a group with 22 seconds left as Chamberlain, Holloway, Chris Jasiota and Nick Hager went to the. bench one last time and the crowd rose to give the group a well-deserved standing ovation. Curley was proud of the effort and noted, "As long as we play defense, we know we're going to have a chance. It's a signature win and it says a lot about us. I'm also happy to get our crowd a win.

They have been very supportive of what we are doing." Juniata got a balanced scoring effort as five players reached double figures with Chamberlain and Ferko each tallying 16. Brian Cannon had 13, while Kyle Opitz garnered 12 and Jasiota added 10. The Eagles made 27 of 59 shots to shoot 46 percent from the field. James Wallace paced the Bison with 14 points, followed by Brody Jackson with 13 and Ryan Besancon 11. Bethany shot only 34 percent from the floor as it made 22 of 65 attempts for the game.

The Bison managed only eight of 35 tries (23 percent) in the first half by the Juniata defense. Curley looked forward to this weekend by adding, "We had a choice, either play or stay home. Now, we get to play in our own final four." College Men's Basketball Round-up: fourth quarter that knocked off second-seeded Chestnut Ridge 57-44 in a district semifinal on the Lions' home court at Fishertown. Bailey expects to start senior Elias "Hoops" Hoover and senior Skyler Sheeder at the guards, senior Chris Neuder at center and juniors Jordan Donaldson and Thad Meek at the forwards. Donaldson, who surpassed the career plateau late in the playoff win over Everett, leads the Titans in scoring with a 14.2 average.

Hoover is next at 11.5, along with an average of six assists per game. Meek carries a 6.6 average, while Sheeder is at 4.8 and Neuder 2.2. The Titans have a deep bench, which is necessary in their aggressive "in-your-face" man defense. Regular contributors off the bench are senior Richard Hughes (3.5), freshman Randy Zimmerman (3.4), junior Nick Angelo (4.9), senior Drew Winfield (3.4), junior Josh Brown and senior Philip Shontz. Tussey averages a modest 57.8 points per game on offense, but is giving up only 44.9 for an average winning margin of 13 points.

"Certainly, our defense has been good all season with a lot of guys contributing to that," Bailey asserts. "We have hard-nosed kids who are unselfish, play hard, know their roles and do what it takes to win. Two examples of that are Hoover's assist average and the fact that Neuder, Sheeder and Hoover have stepped in the lane and taken a total of 23 charges between them." The Titans don't have a lot of size under the basket with center Neuder standing at six feet tall. Bailey explains, "We give good help to one another and work for positioning under the basket that help us average about 33 rebounds a game. I feel the key is stopping the ball from going into the paint by pressuring the guards outside.

We'll depend on that part of our defense as much as anything when we play North Star. The court is so big at UPJ that we can't play a tight press, but we need to stay on top of the ball." The slow-starting Cougars lean heavily on 6-5 senior Dave Kavar, who Bailey says likes to drift outside on offense while staying planted in the middle of the paint on defense. However, sophomore Luke Zellem led the way against Ridge with 15 points. Kavar had 13 points, 13 rebounds and six blocked shots, while sophomore Alijah Petrilla and senior Josh Daly had 10 each. Petrilla netted 19 in the WestPAC title win over Rockwood.

The Cougars, who average 58.6 points per game while giving up 49.3, split decisions with Windber, Ferndale and Portage. The other losses were to Turkeyfoot Valley and Somerset. After watching a couple game tapes of North Star, Bailey scouts, "Their new coach has done a good job turning things around. They hustle and play hard on both ends of the court. Kavar is their go-to guy on offense, but they have some other kids who can score, too.

"Defensively, we've seen them in what appears to be a 1-3-1 match-up zone, as well as some man- to-man pressure. That zone could be vulnerable to our cutters to the basket as well as getting some threes from out front. "I think we want to run up and down the floor on offense and, defensively, try to slow them down into a half-court game. "The keys are to hold our own in rebounds and to force turnovers with our defense. And we want those turnovers to create some offensive opportunities for our guards." Last year, Tussey downed Windber 54-42 in the 5-AA final and then lost in the first found of state play to Beaver Falls, 75-38, to cap an 18-9 campaign.

The same scenario is possible for the 5-AA representative this year as it opens PIAA play against the No. 4 qualifier out of District Seven (WPIAL). Top-seeded Aliquippa (25-2) pounded Northgate (20-7) by 100-67 and Jeannette (21-3) downed Beaver Falls (19-9) by 80-71 in last night's WPIAL semifinals. Aliquippa and Jeannette collide for the District Seven title Saturday at Duquesne University's A.J. Palumbo Center.

The team the eventual champion defeated in the semifinals becomes the No. 3 qualifier, while the team the eventual runner-up bested in the semis enters state play as the No. 4 qualifier. If the seeds hold true and Aliquippa beats Jeannette for the WPIAL crown, then the District Five champ will face Beaver Falls in the first round of state play March 10. uui was icu File Photo by AMANDA MclLROY Juniata College's Brian Cannon (44) takes a shot over Bethany's Ryan Besancon (30) when they met in the finals of the Mutual Benefit Group Doc Greene Tip-Off Tournament to start the season.

Last night, Cannon scored 13 points as the Eagles defeated the Bison again, this tme by 72-62 in an ECAC South Region quarterfinal playoff at Memorial Gym. Cannon had 12 in the Eagles' earlier 76-64 win over Bethany. District 6-9 Swimming Championships: Landry leads 19 Bearcat qualifiers By TY R. STATES Contributing Writer Huntingdon's swimming teams completed another successful regular season. Now, sights are set on the District Class AA and AAA Swimming and Diving Championships this weekend at the Penn State University Natatorium.

The Bearcats have 19 entries in the district field, 13 of whom appeared at districts last year. "For the size of our team, the number we have is pretty comparable to past years," Huntingdon head coach Melanie Varner said. Points are scored for places one through 12. The top two swimmers in each event, plus anyone meeting the qualifying time, advance to the state championship meet. Boys Senior David Landry owns the team's best seeding at No.

2 in the 50 freestyle and third in the 100 free. Landry's time was 23.01, which is just over half a second behind top-seeded Alex Goodman of Bradford. The 50 free should be a good race. Landry set the school record in the event this year and third-seeded Kevin Koul from Westmont Hilltop is only 0.27 seconds behind Landry. David Ritchey and Ethan Mansberger are also in the 50 free for the Bearcats.

The 100 free is another record that Landry owns. He is seeded third with Goodman and Brandon Boyer of Clearfield ahead Ted Braxton and Derek Hetrick are also in the 100 free, i "David is fired up and ready to go," Varner rernark.ed. "He is excited to see what he can do at districts." Hetrick broke his own school mark in the 100 breaststroke and is seeded fifth with Ritchey and Braxton also competing. Joe Clarkson is at No. 7 in the 200 individual medley, where he set another Huntingdon record, and ninth seed in the 100 backstroke.

Cameron Stevens and Calvin Condon will take part in the 200 free and the 500 free. Varner can list eight swimmers for each of the relays and then decide who to enter in the event. Huntingdon is seeded fifth in the 200 freestyle relay and the 400 free relay and ninth for the 200 medley relay. Brett Landry is one of the alternates for the relays. "In the relays, you never know," Varner remarked.

"The girls have more options, experience, and a strong team for all three, For the boys, I may go down to the last minute before deciding what to do with them and who to put where." Girls Sarah Ritchey is the highest-seeded girl at No. 5 in the 500 free with a time of 5:48.37. Carolyn Shurer from Clearfield is at the top with a time 10 seconds faster. Briana Isenberg is seeded ninth in the 500 and Erin Goodall will also be competing. "The 500 is an event where there is room for improvement and Sarah could be in the top six when awards are given," Varner explained.

Stephanie Varner is ranked sixth in the 50 free. She is still within a second of top-seeded Katie Slavinski of Bradford. Tatiana Ballreich is No. 8 and freshman Caitlin Green is in the middle of the pack. The 200 free sees Isenberg as the eighth seed and Amy Slicker is 12th.

Ballreich has the eighth spot in the 100 butterfly with freshman Kelsey Miles also taking part. Ritchey is ninth in the 100 breaststroke and Sophie Brenneman is also in the event. Slicker is at No. 11 in the 200 individual medley. Huntingdon has Green, Varner and Miles in the 100 free and Schneider in the 100 breaststroke.

The Bearcats look good in the relays, too. They are seeded fifth in the 200 free and 400 free relays and sixth in the 200 medley. Durant leads Longhorns over Texas in double OT By JIM VERTUNO AP Sports Writer AUSTIN, Texas (AP) A sign crowned him "King Durant" and the crowd was chanting "Three More Years." Texas fans knew they just might be watching freshman Kevin Durant's last home game for the No. 15 Longhorns. And boy, it was a doozy.

Durant had 30 points and 16 rebounds to lead Texas to a wild 98-96 double-overtime victory over No. 7 Texas that will be remembered as much for how the Aggies and Acie Law nearly spoiled the party. Every time the Longhorns (22-7, 12-3) seemed to have put the Aggies away, Law came up the with big shots to keep alive until he finally couldn't muster another. Law finished with 33 points, hitting 3-pointers that forced both overtimes. With both game-tying shots, he posed and pointed at a loud group of Aggies fans in the upper deck of the arena.

But eventually the shots ran out and Durant and the Longhorns got the win that sends them into Saturday's regular-season finale at No. 3 Kansas with a chance to earn a share of the Big 12 title. The back-and-forth between Durant and Law will only fuel debate over which player should earn Big 12 player of the year honors. Should it be the precocious freshman who took the league by storm or the flashy senior who has led the Aggies to their best season in a generation? "If you really look at the value of those two guys, both teams would be very different without them," Texas coach Rick Barnes said. "When we recruited Kevin Durant, we knew how good he was and told him, 'Our expectation for you is to be the best player in college In the only other Top 25 games, it was No, 24 Maryland 85, No, Duke 77; and No.

19 Vanderbilt 99, South Carolina 90 in OT. Three conference tournaments also began Wednesday. In the Patriot League, it was Holy Cross 83, Lafayette 53; Bucknell 62, Navy 42; Army 47, Lehigh 46; and American 59, Colgate 44. In the Southern Conference, Chattanooga beat Wofford 64-55; Western Carolina edged Elon 6966; and Georgia Southern defeated The Citadel 62-46. In the Sun Belt Conference it was Florida Atlantic 91, Florida International 88, OT; Louisiana-Monroe 83, Denver 67; North Texas 93, Louisiana-Lafayette 78; New Orleans 77, Arkansas-Little Rock 70; and Middle Tennessee 72, Troy 64.

A boisterous sellout crowd came to watch what most assumed was Durant's last home game at Texas. Many expect he'll leave college for the NBA this year, although he hasn't publicly stated that. Texas thought it had the game won when Durant hit a long 3-pointer with 20 seconds left in regulation for a four-point lead. Law forced the first overtime when he got the ball deep in the right corner and put up a high shot over the 6-foot-9 Durant. It seemed to take forever to drop in with 1.1 seconds left.

"I tried to put as much arc on it as I could," Law said. "I was just lucky." Texas led by as much as seven in the first overtime. Law tied it again with 26 seconds left, 88-88. It looked like Law would do it again when he drove to the basket for a tying layup at the end of the second overtime, but his shot was blocked by Damion James with 15 seconds left. Durant hit three of four free throws in the final seconds to seal the win.

Law, who finished with 33 points for (24-5, 12-3) got to the free throw line with the Aggies 'down by three with 1.4 seconds left. He made the first to pull them within two, but was forced to miss the second to give his team a chance to grab the rebound. Chinemelu Elonu got the ball, but his final putback was off the mark. D.J. Augustin added 25 points for the Longhorns.

James scored 22 and had two key blocks late. "He just takes over games at the end," Durant said of Law. "He's a great player. Me and Acie are real good friends. It was fun going back and forth." Texas opened the second overtime with a 3- pointer by A.J.

Abrams, who followed it with a floater in the lane. tied it on Antanas Kavali- auskas' 3-pointer before Durant got to the line to finish it off. As for player of the year honors, Law told Durant who he would vote for. "I told him if I had a vote, it would be for him," Law said. "We'll leave that to the voters.

Player of the year in this conference is a big deal." No. 24 Maryland 85, No. 14 Duke 77 At Durham, N.C., Mike Jones scored 25 points and D.J. Strawberry had a pair of baskets during the decisive second-half spurt to lead Maryland past Duke, Strawberry finished with 17 points for the Terrapins (23-7, 9-6 Atlantic Coast Conference), who have won six straight games all in the conference to firm up what looked to be a shaky NCAA tournament resume only a few weeks ago. Ekene Ibekwe also scored 17 points, while freshman Greivis Vasquez added 13 points and 12 assists to help Maryland sweep the season series.

Greg Paulus scored 20 points to lead Duke (228, 8-7), which rallied from a 12-point second-half deficit to tie it, but couldn't push ahead No. 19 VanderbUt 99, South Carolina 90, OT At Columbia, S.C., Shan Foster scored a career-high 33, Derrick Byars added eight of his 18 points in overtime and Vanderbilt surrendered a 17-point second-half lead before rallying to beat South Carolina. Byars, the team's leading scorer, was held to 10 points six fewer than his average during reg-. ulation. But he made two consecutive S-pouiters to start the extra session and give the Commodores (20-9, 10-5 Southeastern Conference) 87-82 lead.

The Gamecocks (14-14, 4-11) coukJo't get closer than four points the rest of the way..