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basketball 2025-26: Let's review
Payton Liederbach is the 10th Oil City girl to reach the milestone. This is the first balloons/poster shot of the season. It happened on Dec .16. Liederbach scored 1,308 points, good for second on Oil City's all-time list behind Tracy Whitling (1,346).
Nevin Stinson scored 537 points for a "modern" single-season scoring record at Oil City. The late Mike Emick was the previous record-holder with 498 in 1971. There is kind of a catch since Steve Cleaves did score 541 points in 1920 -- but that was when one player shot all the free throws for his team. Cleaves was the man for the Oilers, so there is an asterisk beside his name. Stinson, who saw no varsity action until his sophomore season when he scored all of 17 points, still challenged 1,000 career points, but came up short with 961. He's No. 3 on the Oilers' all-time list behind Ben Schill and Chris Jasiota.
Rocky Grove's Noah Baughman and Landen Carter were players 2 and 3 tp reach 1,000. And they did it on the same night -- Dec. 20. Christy Fickler captured these shots. The Grove's dynamic duo ended up 3-4 on the program's all-time list behind Dylan Gravatt (1,904) and Chad Sanner (1,428). Baughman had 1,350 and Carter 1,320.
Family and friends gather around Cole Findlay after the Cranberry senior scored his 1,000th career point Jan. 16 against Keystone. Findlay is the seventh Cranberry boy to score 1,000. He's also No. 3 on the Berries' all-time list behind Ryan Willison (1,771) in 2013 and Bob Foggan (1,200) in1957. Findlay finished with 1,159.
Marchinke MVP of
KSAC hoops
Cranberry junior Blake Marchinke (23) on Feb. 9 was named MVP on the KSAC boys basketball all-stars.
Marchinke was one of four Cranberry players honored.
Cole Findlay (1), a senior, was picked to the second team.
Sophomore Darien Wenner (2) was named to the first team of the girls all-stars. She was joined by third team selection Jadyn Shumaker (22), a senior.
Wenner was a repeat first team pick, while Marchinke moved up from the second team. Findlay and Shumaker were third team picks last year.
...And In one corner...
Hailey hanna
Franklin outlasts Oil City, 74-71, in OT in a Region 5 battle for first place as stat sheet heavyweights collide. Hanna followed up her seven-trifecta effort with six against Oil City. Payton Liederbach countered with 39 points for the Lady Oilers.
Hanna was voted female Athlete of the Week in an Erie Times News poll for her seven triples game.
But injuries weren't kind to the Lady Knights this season, and a few too many of them hurt them in the end. LINK
(Photos by Tammy Curry and Kelly Malek)
Payton Liederbach
Champions
District 9 3A -- Cranberry boys
District 10 regions
Region 5 boys-- Oil City (first league title in 55 years)
Region 5 girls -- Oil City (shared with Conneaut and Titusville)
Region 2 boys -- Rocky Grove (shared with Saegertown)
A "new thing" here, this by Oil City, which awarded "Burch Chain" winners every week or so to players for various and sometimes unusual reasons. (Like taking a change). Isaiah Van Wormer is pictured here modeling one. The award is named after Oilers' GOAT Dutch Burch, believed to be the only District 10 player to be drafted by an NBA team. (Fort Wayne now Detroit Pistons.) After starring for Oil City in the late 1940s, Burch played at Pitt. He even coached the Oilers for a year or two before heading to Williamsport to get on with his "life's work," coaching the Lycoming College team.
The 22-4 record by the Cranberry boys was the second best in program history, topped only by the 24-4 posted by the 1939 team, which won the District 10 Class B title. Up until 1945, Class B champions didn't advance beyond the district title games.
Another new thing here. I decided to list the free throw stats in order of attempts -- as in who, in fact, is getting to the line in the first place.
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So here they are. As you can see, Cranberry's Blake Marchinke is the champ -- he's seen here staring down the hoop before he shoots the ball -- and one of six players, including two girls, with more than 100 attempts.
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