Eagles shock Wellsboro
Published: March 4, 2010
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WELLSBORO — Line Mountain’s Karl Howerter broke his nose in three different places last week in a scrimmage against Millersburg.
Unable to do any more damage to it, he played in the Eagles’ District 4 Class AA opening round playoff game against Wellsboro on Tuesday without a protective mask.
It was Wellsboro which ultimately needed protection from Howerter as he made the game’s final basket to give the Eagles a 47-45 win, sending the Hornets scrambling from the playoffs after coming in with a 17-5 record and the district’s No. 5 seed.
The Eagles, 12-11, were expected to play South Williamsport, a 65-44 winner over Bloomsburg, in the round of eight with time and location still to be determined.
Howerter, a senior, was relatively quiet during the first half, but when the ball bounced to him with less than 15 seconds to play in a tie game and the Eagles’ two leading scorers, Trae Wren and Mike Marciniak, guarded tightly, he drove the lane and scored on a layup that just slipped over the front of the rim.
“I saw the opening and just went for it,” Howerter said after the game with swelling still lingering in his nose. “It’s a little sore, but the win really helps it go away.”
Wellsboro had a final chance to tie it, but the Hornets’ Ethan Callahan missed a pair of free throws, making Howerters’ shot the saving grace for the Eagles.
“Down the stretch, Karl made some key plays when it counted, and that’s what a senior should do – step up when the game is on the line,” Line Mountain head coach Lance Adams said. “He did a nice job doing that.
“He’s a senior and he deserves to be in that position. He has earned that spot on the floor. He earned the chance to take that shot and he made good on it.”
Only after an incredibly scrappy comeback fueled by Wren’s 19 points were the Eagles able to be in a position for Howerter’s shot after they trailed by 11 points at the end of the first quarter.
Slowly, the Eagles chipped away at Wellsboro’s lead until one of Wren’s five 3-pointers tied the game at 36 with 3:25 left in the third.
“I thought Trae did a great job of taking shots when he needed to take shots,” Adams said. “He forced them to come out and not double Mike as quickly as they wanted to.”
Wren’s shooting kept just enough pressure off Marciniak, who finished with 14, in the post after Hornets’ big men Callahan and Caleb Getty controlled the paint in the first half and scored a combined 18 points in the game’s first 16 minutes.
But Adams had a consistent message every time his team came to the bench during timeouts and between quarters — keep trying to rebound.
It paid off as Line Mountain outrebounded Wellsboro 15-10 in the second half. Perhaps the most unlikely of rebounders, guard Bill Breinich, who gave up plenty of inches, kept three different Line Mountain possessions alive with offensive rebounds in the second half.
“In every timeout and time stoppage, every time I had a chance to talk to them, I kept reiterating how important it was to win the rebound battle and they bought into it,” Adams said. “Billy is one of the smaller guards, but he did a nice job of attacking the boards.”
Howerter and Wren are the only two seniors on a team that regularly plays just six, after football injuries kept two probable starters out all season and the mid-season transfer of role player Kendall Dennison left the Eagles without much size or experience. Breinich, Cole Rickert and Codi Morris, who connected on a 3-pointer at the end of the first half to cut the Hornets’ lead to six, have all filled in nicely for Adams’ squad and should all get a bump in confidence going into the next round and next season.
“I told them to enjoy tonight, but we didn’t come here just to play one game and go home,” Adams said. “If you’re satisfied with one game then we’re never going to be competitors. In order to compete, you want to keep moving on, keep staying alive.”
