SENECA, Pa. — Warm ups I guess are called warm ups for a reason.

Cranberry’s Evan Lutz said he wasn’t shooting the ball very well in the pregame ritual, but once the scoreboard clock started ticking down Lutz was at his best.

The Cranberry senior hit 8 of his 10 first-half shots and finished the night shooting 10 of 16 from the field while scoring 23 points to lead Cranberry to a 73-53 win over visiting Clarion in KSAC North play Friday night at the Berry Dome.

“Shooting warmups, I wasn’t shooting very well,” Lutz said. “But in the game, they went in, so that was good.”

Lutz was a big reason the Berries shot 66.7 percent (18 of 27) in the first half while building a 41-25 halftime lead.

Cranberry finished the game shooting 58.5 percent (31 of 53) while avenging an early-season, 47-43, loss to the Bobcats. It’s also Cranberry’s second consecutive win after a two-game losing streak.

“This was a huge win for us,” Lutz said. “We got our momentum back after those two games we dropped.”

Senior point guard Nick Varsek helped make Lutz’s life easy in the first half handing out 10 of his game-high 11 assists before halftime. Varsek also finished with nine points, but it was the assists he was most pleased with.

“I like passing more than I like scoring,” Varsek said.

The win continues a trend for Cranberry, which is now 9-2 in its last 11 games after starting the season 3-4.

“I think it would be awesome if we could go out and win a D9 championship,” Varsek said.

Jonathan Smith led Clarion with 23 points and eight rebounds, but the Bobcat star scored just five first-half points.

Smith’s first-half troubles were on cue with the rest of Clarion’s team.

The Bobcats, who were without starting point guard and second-leading scorer Cam Craig, who has an injured foot, shot just 31.3 percent (10 of 32) before halftime while turning the ball over eight times.

“We came out in a zone,” Lutz said. “Coach wanted us to come out in a zone, because he saw tape on them. The zone worked.”

Brendan Zerbe added 12 points for Cranberry with Dechlyn Sheffer chipping in 11 points and Caleb McCandless 10 points off the bench.

Ty Burford added 11 points and seven rebounds for Clarion with Bo Miller adding six points and nine rebounds.

Cranberry is back in action Tuesday against Forest Area at West Forest.

Clarion returns to action Tuesday at North Clarion.

Story by Chris Rossetti

CRANBERRY 73, CLARION 53

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Clarion 11 14 11 17 — 53

Cranberry 24 17 16 16 — 73

CLARION — 53

Bo Miller 2-8 1-2 6, Jonathan Smith 11-27 1-1 23, Ty Burford 4-9 3-4 11, Reed Anthony 1-4 0-0 3, Ceventh Lynch-Skunda 2-8 0-0 4, Ryan Anthony 0-3 0-0 0, Spencer Miller 1-2 0-0 2, Craig Kerr 0-1 0-0 0, Mark Liu 1-1 0-0 2, John Allen 1-1 0-0 2, Luke Nellis 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-64 5-7 53.

CRANBERRY — 73

Nick Varsek 3-6 2-2 9, Dechlyn Sheffer 4-5 2-3 11, Evan Lutz 10-16 0-2 23, Austin Rex 2-5 0-0 4, Brendan Zerbe 6-9 0-0 12, Tylor Ziegler 0-2 0-0 0, Andrew Gunn 1-1 0-0 2, Caleb McCandless 5-8 0-0 10, Tyler MacNeil 0-0 0-0 0, Josh Tygert 0-0 0-0 0, Cameron Daugherty 0-1 2-2 2, Luke McQuaide 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-53 6-9 73.

THREE-POINTERS — Clarion 2-13 (B. Miller 1-2, Reed Anthony 1-3, Lynch-Skunda 0-3, Ryan Anthony 0-3, S. Miller 0-1, Kerr 0-1). Cranberry 5-13 (Lutz 3-5, Sheffer 1-2, Varsek 1-3, Rex 0-1, Zerbe 0-1, Ziegler 0-1).