Lady Tide Overtakes Lady Owls 41-39 in MVL

CURWENSVILLE – The first rule in the formula for winning any league championship is to win at home, and the Curwensville Area High School girls\’ basketball team has done that with a pair of look-a-like performances.

Playing without three-year letter-winner Jackie White, who suffered a sprained ankle in practice Monday, the Lady Tide came from behind in the fourth quarter Tuesday night to nip Harmony 41-39 for its second narrow Moshannon Valley League victory in Patton Hall.

A quirk in the 2006-07 schedule had Curwensville wearing home white for its first look against all four MVL opponents. The Lady Tide outscored Moshannon Valley 21-10 in the final eight minutes for a 42-39 on Dec. 4 and will host West Branch Thursday and Glendale Monday.

\”It\’s an important win that they can come out with a win without Jackie,\” coach Vic Gearhart said after the first of Curwensville\’s four consecutive home games before the holiday break. \”It puts us in a good situation.

\”What hurt not having Jackie there was that experience defensively and that extra rebounder, cause they hurt us on the boards. Somebody had to stop that penetration, and we didn\’t. Plus, we really missed her keying the ball in (from) out of bounds. She can look over the top of anybody and find somebody open on the press on our out-of-bounds plays.\”

Fortunately, the Lady Tide had another three-year veteran to lean on, and Dani Struble delivered again with 17 points even though Harmony coach Chris Priester assigned scrappy Kierstyn Kruise to hound the senior standout all over the court while the other Lady Owls played a 1-3 zone.

The scheme caught the Curwensville coaching staff off guard.

\”We were expecting a box-and-one on Dani, or a triangle-and-two, cause they had run that last year on Dani and Jackie,\” Gearhart explained. \”They had a girl on Dani and a girl waiting for Dani. It was just a junk defense, but we don\’t have the perimeter shooters to attack that.\”

The game was close throughout. The biggest lead for either team was four points, and the score was tied 12 times.

For Curwensville, the first quarter was a nightmare filled with turnovers and missed shots. Struble\’s long jumper with just 1:19 left produced Curwensville\’s only points. However, that tied the score, for the Lady Owls were experiencing problems with the Lady Tide\’s zone.

Megan Brink added two foul shots and a fast-break lay-up in the final minute to make it 6-2. Struble finally got untracked early in the second period with a baseline jumper, two free throws and a lay-up after grabbing a loose ball under the boards to give the Lady Tide its first lead at 8-7 with 5:59 left in the half. At that point, Struble and Brink had accounted for all of the scoring.

Sophomore Holly Lansberry, stepping into the play-making role because of the Harmony defense and White\’s injury, netted the next five points that kept the Lady Tide in front or tied. Drives by Kruise and Brink and a baseline jumper by Emily Leyo gave the Lady Owls a 17-13 edge, but they failed to score in the final 2:42, and Curwensville got even by halftime.

\”Holly Lansberry played a very scrappy game,\” Gearhart said. \”She gave us some offense, more than we\’re usually used to seeing. She\’ll always give you a good effort. She just got some extended time.\”

Harmony managed to keep Struble off the scoreboard in the third quarter, but Hannah Walls finished two strong drivers through the Lady Owls\’ zone and senior reserve Shannon Hamm worked the baseline for two key shots that kept Curwensville in front until Leyo\’s put-back with 2:01 left and Brink\’s pair of short jumpers in the last minute gave the visitors a 33-29 lead.

The Lady Owls\’ shooting turned frigid in the fourth quarter, though. Their lone field goal resulted from Sam Gallaher\’s hustle and work under the basket that set the final score with 1:20 left.

Gearhart believed a change in defense made a difference, explaining, \”We had gone with man, and we went with a 1-3-1. When we went to a 3-2, that kind of threw them a little bit.\”

The Lady Tide finally went ahead for keeps at 36-35 on Lanberry\’s free throw with 4:12 to play. Struble made it 39-25 on a tough jumper left and, with Kruise right on her hip, stunned everybody by pulling up for a three-pinter from the right wing with 1:32 left to go.

Gearhart didn\’t see it coming either. \”I stood up to call a timeout, and she let that thing fly,\” he said. \”I turned to the coaches and said, \’Well, we look like geniuses now.\’\”

However, Gearhart wasn\’t happy with the way the Lady Tide played with the lead in clutch time.

\”We have to improve the mental part of our game,\” he said. \”We had the lead, and we don\’t do what we need to protect it. We\’re not finding the ball handler, the person who needs the ball in their hands. And we almost fouled at the end of the game. All we had to do was let the clock run out.

\”We just have a lot of basketball to learn. It will come. I know it will. It\’s just things happened we need to fix. We\’ve got to get back on the floor and find the time to work on it.\”

With White out, Gearhart turned to his bench more. He said, \”I really have been going with seven kids. Mindy Desmett got some more time. She and Shannon Hamm got some big buckets. Shannon\’s been working hard. Shannon McDonald got out there and didn\’t hurt us. She\’ll play some defense. They work hard, and there\’s got to be a reward someplace.\”

Gearhart hopes to have White back for Thursday\’s key game against West Branch, which beat Harmony 46-29 on Dec. 4 in its lone MVL outing.

\”West Branch, I think, is the team that\’s going to surprise some people,\” Gearhart said. \”They won only three games last year, but they got better and better as the year went on. And they\’ve got everybody\’s back.\”

Freshman Alyson Leyo had 12 points for Harmony, which is 0-2 in the MVL and 1-3 overall.

In the prelim, Alesia Bressler and Tess Bloom scored 12 points apiece as the Curwensville junior varsity posted a 42-30 victory. Kerri Coble topped Harmony with eight points.

Harmony — 39
Brink 6 6-8 18, A. Leyo 3 6-10 12, Kruise 1 0-1 2, E. Leyo 2 1-2 5, Gallaher 1 0-02, Harlkeroad 0 0-0 0. Totals: 13 13-21 39.

Curwensville — 41
Struble 6 4-5 17, Walls 2 0-0 4, Fink 3 0-0 6, Knepp 1 0-0 2, Lansberry 2 4-6 8, Desmett 0 0-0 0, Hamm 2 0-0 4, McDonald 0 0-0 0. Totals: 16 8-11 41.

Three-Point Field Goal: Curwensville 1 (Struble).

Score by Quarters:
Harmony 6 11 16 6 — 39
Curwensville 2 15 12 12 —41