CURWENSVILLE — Jackie White and Dani Struble combined for 15 points in the final 4:10 as the Curwensville Area High School girls basketball team turned back stubborn Johnsonburg 50-40 in Patton Hall Friday night to remain in the hunt for a second consecutive Allegheny Mountain League South Division title.
With the Lady Tide trailing, 36-35, White scored eight points in a row and later added a free throw, while Struble contributed four foul shots and a late field goal.
Struble was eight-for-eight at the foul line and now has made 28 free throws in a row.
\”That\’s definitely the girls\’ record, and I\’m pretty sure that\’s the school record,\” Curwensville Tide coach Vic Gearhart said. \”I think Shane Pentz has the boys\’ record with 23 in a row.\”
Free throws were critical again for the 15-4 Lady Tide, which outpointed the Ramettes 17-7 at the foul line to up its AML South record to 6-2. Curwensville can do no worse than tie DuBois Central for first place with victories at Ridgway (1-16, 1-7) Tuesday and at home against Sheffield (7-13) Friday and would own the tiebreaker via a better overall record.
The Parents Night win didn\’t come easy for the Lady Tide, which played catch-up much of the game. The Ramettes led or were even for most of the second and third quarters before faltering down the stretch to fall to 8-11.
\”I didn’t know what to expect from them,\” Gearhart said. \”We hadn\’t gotten to see them play and comparing scores with opponents we’ve had, they’ve been up and down. They surprised me with different scores. I don’t think it should have been that close, but we played just a sluggish first half. We weren’t moving offensively or defensively.
\”Points were hard to come by. We got some looks at buckets, wide open underneath, and didn\’t convert those. I was disappointed in our effort. We should have been carrying a decent lead into halftime.\”
Instead, Johnsonburg walked off the floor with a 19-17 edge when Cassie Carrow\’s field goal broke the fourth deadlock of the half. Curwensville managed to carry the first quarter 11-7 after Abby Grumley, Johnsonburg\’s leading scorer and rebounder, went to the bench with her second foul with 5:47 left.
That lead evaporated, though, when the Lady Tide went almost five minutes in the second period without a point, missing five shots and turning the ball over three times before Holly Fink hit a turnaround shot in the lane. Failure to make seven of their 10 free throws prevented the Ramettes from owning a bigger lead at the half.
Gearhart thought the Lady Tide started the second half much like the first quarter, \”but then they picked up the pace.\”
Not before the Ramettes grabbed their biggest lead, 28-22, in the first four minutes on pairs of field goals by Kay Thornwart on the outside and Carrow on the inside. However, Grumley picked up her third personal foul with 3:08 left in the third period and went to the bench again, and Johnsonburg wasn\’t the same under the boards.
Sophomore Hannah Walls got Curwensville even with a conventional three-pointer after a steal and then a trey from outside.
After Ramette Ellie Kajancic canned a turnaround from the foul line, Struble nailed two field goals, one a trey, to send the Lady Tide into the final period ahead 33-30.
Thornwart\’s fourth three-pointer from almost the same spot on the right wing, giving her a game-high 16 points, and Kadie Zilkofski\’s two-pointer gave the Ramettes their 36-35 advantage with 4:23 to play.
Then White went to work. She made it 37-36 with a 17-footer from the right wing, backed in along the baseline and flipped in a lefthanded layup and canned four free throws in a row. When she was fouled with 2:30 left, the Johnsonburg coach was tagged with a technical foul, and Struble calmly added two more points.
The Lady Tide retained possession, and Struble drew a foul that ended Grumley\’s night with 2:22 left. The Curwensville senior made it 47-36 with two more free throws.
Struble and Walls finished with 15 points apiece and White added 12 for the Lady Tide.
\”Hannah hit some big buckets, especially in the third quarter,\” Gearhart said. \”And we got a decent effort out of Holly Fink, who was pretty sick. She gave us some minutes she had to because Ronna (Knepp) was in foul trouble all night long.\”
Knepp fouled out in the first minute of the fourth quarter and without the seniors inside presence for long stretches, the Lady Tide was outrebounded 32-28, with Grumley grabbing 10 for Johnsonburg despite playing less than two quarters.
\”That\’s been our weakness all year,\” Gearhart said. \”We just don\’t have any jumpers, and we don\’t go to the basketball. We had lots of hands on balls, but not enough possessions.
\”They (Johnsonburg) could have scored more than they did. They had a lot of putbacks that they missed. We were pretty fortunate.\”
Next week can be extra special for Curwensville because it also can lock up the Moshannnon Valley League championship with a win at West Branch (9-12, 5-2) Wednesday. The Lady Tide is 6-0 in the MVL.
Johnsonburg\’s junior varsity won the prelim 33-20. Tess Bloom scored 10 points for Curwensville.
JOHNSONBURG — 40
Abby Grumley 1 2-4 4, Rachel Herbstritt 1 1-2 3, Kay Thornwart 6 0-0 16, Kadie Zilkofski 1 1-4 3, Ellie Kajancic 2 0-0 5, Cassie Carrow 3 3-5 9, Becca Myers 0 0-0 0, Whitney Barber 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 7-15 40.
CURWENSVILLE — 50
Dani Struble 3 8-8 15, Hannah Walls 5 3-3 15, Ronna Knepp 2 0-2 4, Holly Fink 2 0-0 4, Jackie White 3 6-10 12, Holly Lansberry 0 0-0 0, Shannon Hamm 0 0-0 0. Totals: 15 17-22 50.
Three-Point Field Goals: Johnsonburg 5 (Thornwart 4, Kajancic 1); Curwensville 3 (Walls 2, Struble 1).
Score by Quarters:
Johnsonburg 7 12 11 10 — 40
Curwensville 11 6 16 17 — 50