Nevin Stinson  broke the school  single-season scoring record, but Oil City again showed it is is no match for Cathedral Prep.

It was closer than the 115-60 schooling the state-ranked and once-beaten Ramblers handed the Oilers in the Dick Russell tournament in December. This time, two months later in the District 10 4A playoffs, the score was a much more respectable 85-61. Improvement shown.

And, what's more, because five teams from District 10 will advance to the PIAA playoffs, the Oilers lived to play another day, anyhow.

Unfortunately, for Rocky Grove, the Orioles didn't in the 2A tournament at Meadville. Cochranton, two-time losers to the Orioles in Region 2 this year, played stubborn and wouldn't go down a third time. The Cardinals survived and advanced with a 48-47 decision on Walker Carroll's basket with 15 seconds to play. The Grove had one last chance, but was called for traveling with two seconds left, and thus finished the season with a 16-7 record.

Oil City fell behind Prep 21-10 at the quarter and it was pretty much all Ramblers after that. Prep took a 70-49 lead into the fourth after a 30-point third.

Prep's biggest of big guns, Nando Mirachi, led the way with 31. Mirachi, a transfer from McDowell, averages 26.3 -- about the same as Stinson, who tallied 25 to lead the 18-6 Oilers.

Stinson now has 520 points this season, breaking the "modern" record of 498 set in 1971 by 6-4 Mike "Hoss" Emick. (Ironically this game was played at Mercyhurst, where Emick later played college basketball.)

Stinson is now in range to break Steve Cleaves' single-season record of 541 points set in 1920 when he shot all of Oil City's free throws. Thirty-four players in Venango County history have scored 500 points or more in a season, led by Tom Carroll of St. Joe who bucketed 706 in 1958. Only six others have topped 600. 

Stinson also has 944 career points, five behind No. 3 Logan Way, who finished his career in 2014 with 949.

The Oilers received another big game from freshman Isaiah Van Wormer, who scored 15 points, and is averaging 7.9 coming off the bench the last 10 games.

So, with the Oilers in the losers' bracket, they'll take on Harbor Creek Tuesday. If they get by the Huskies, a 19-point loser to Hickory on Friday, they'll face Girard or Fairview in the battle for fifth place this Friday. 

Last hurrah for Baughman, Carter

Rocky Grove got off to a 9-2 start against Cochranton, but the Cardinals were ahead 19-16 by halftime before withstanding a 20-point barrage by the Orioles in the fourth quarter.

Save for a Connor Ritchey three-pointer with 33.9 seconds left, they held onto the lead before Carroll's basket got it back.

The game ended the storied careers of two of the Orioles' GOATS. Noah Baughman and Landen Carter scored their 1,000th points in the same game in December and finished 3-4 on the Orioles' all-time scoring list, Baughman with 1,350 points and Carter with 1,320. Dylan Gravatt, Venango County's all-time leading scorer, is No. 1 with 1,904 and Chad Sanner is second with 1,428.