CURWENSVILLE — It\’s no secret why the Curwensville Area High School girls basketball team is one of the best around when it comes to free throw shooting.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
Each Lady Tide player, varsity and junior varsity, toes the foul line 25 times every practice. That\’s added up to more than 17,000 attempts for the team this season. The payoff is a foul shooting percentage above 67 in game situations.
Last night, Kane paid the price for sending the Lady Tide to the charity stripe, as Dani Struble, Jackie White and Hannah Walls combined for an awesome 21-for-23 performance that proved to be the difference in a 46-37 non-league victory in Patton Hall. The Lady Wolves outscored the hosts 30-25 from the floor.
Struble swished all eight of her tries to climb above 80 percent for the season, while White cashed eight of nine free throws and Walls dropped in five of six.
\”It\’s something we work on every night,\” coach Vic Gearhart explained after Curwensville extended its winning streak to eight for a 13-3 record. \”They shoot one shot at each basket. That\’s six shots. They never shoot at the same bucket two times in a row. Every shot is a new shot. It\’s like getting the ball from the referee.
\”Every time they come around, they tell me what they make. They make four rotations and then shoot one more. They know their season percentage, and if they don\’t make it, they have to run sprints. So they\’re competing against themselves. They\’re up over a thousand shots each now.\”
Free throws by the backcourt trio were especially critical for the Lady Tide in the second half. They connected on nine in the third quarter, when only one of Curwensville\’s 13 field goal tries found the nets, and added seven in the final period to stave off a Kane comeback.
Early on, the Lady Wolves\’ man defense and the Lady Tide\’s 3-2 zone dominated. Kane sophomore Bree Bergman broke the scoring ice with a pair of foul shots with 4:59 left in the first quarter and put the visitors ahead for the last time at 4-3 with a baseline jumper 54 seconds later. Curwensville scored the last eight points of the period, four by Struble, for an 11-4 lead.
The Lady Tide, which began its current string of successes with a 49-35 win at Kane on Jan. 4, stretched the margin to 20-9 with 1:30 remaining in the half but needed a Struble jumper from the top of the key at the buzzer to carry a 22-13 edge into the break.
\”If they (Kane) get some shots to drop early, that first half\’s a different ball game,\” Gearhart. \”They\’re a capable team, but they had key people in foul trouble. They\’re scrappy and play real good, aggressive defense. That\’s usually a thorn in our side when people come out and bump with us. But we handled their press. We made some poor decisions on passing, but we found some people open, too. I\’m pleased they\’re looking for teammates and trying to find cutters.\”
Kane, missing two starters because of injuries and a third because of another school function, made it interesting by converting three steals into field goals to slice the deficit to 25-21 with 3:12 left in the third quarter. After Gearhart called a timeout, the Lady Tide kept the Lady Wolves at bay with eight free throws to take a 33-26 lead into the final eight minutes.
After White and Struble increased the spread to 39-27 with 4:29 remaining, the Lady Wolves rallied one more time. Bergman canned a jumper in the lane and Michelle Sink followed with two of her trio of three-pointers from outside, making it 39-35 with 1:38 showing on the clock.
Struble then found Holly Fink open under the hoop an easy field goal, the first of seven consecutive points by the Lady Tide that doomed the Lady Wolves to their 10th loss in 18 games.
Struble finished with a game-high 18 points and White tallied 15 to go with 14 rebounds.
\”Jackie almost always is in double figures in rebounds,\” Gearhart said. \”She\’s been a rock under the boards for us.\”
Bergman topped Kane with 16 points.
\”Our strategy coming in was to limit Bergman,\” Gearhart said. \”She hurt us a lot inside up there, so we were really working hard at collapsing when they got the ball inside. She had to work to get her points. I thought our kids did a great job defensively. They hit a couple threes, but when you\’re trying to take away the inside, you\’re going to give up something.
\”Our defensive effort and our free throw shooting definitely were the keys to the game.\”
Curwensville will be at home tonight for an Allegheny Mountain League South Division rematch with Brockway, a team the Lady Tide beat 49-44 just eight days ago.
\”They played us tough over there,\” Gearhart said. \”We didn\’t play our best game, but they\’re certainly an improved team, so back-to-back nights could be a challenge. We need to keep building off what momentum we have. I think the kids see the importance of winning every night they have the opportunity.\”
A moment of silence was observed prior to the game in memory of former Lady Tide assistant coach Brenda (Clapsadle) Thornhill, who died in an automobile accident in Blair County Tuesday.
Kane won the junior varsity game 36-15. Alesia Bressler scored six points for the Lady Tide.
KANE — 37
Bree Bergman 5 6-7 16, Emily Kane 2 0-0 5, Chelsea Mague 2 0-0 4, Emily Pence 0 0-0 0, Michelle Sink 3 0-0 9, Jen Moore 0 1-2 1, Natalie Kossack 1 0-2 2, Emily Carlson 0 0-0 0. Totals: 13 7-12 37.
CURWENSVILLE — 46
Dani Struble 5 8-8 18, Hannah Walls 1 5-6 7, Ronna Knepp 1 0-0 2, Holly Fink 2 0-0 4, Jackie White 3 8-9 15, Holly Lansberry 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 21-23 46.
Three-Point Field Goals: Kane 4 (Sink 3, E. Kane 1). Curwensville 1 (White).
Score by Quarters:
Kane 4 9 13 11 — 37
Curwensville 11 11 11 13 — 46