CURWENSVILLE — With the school\’s first trip to the PIAA Inter-District Playoffs secured, the Curwensville Lady Tide will be striving for another historic win in Friday\’s District 9 Class AA girls basketball championship game against Karns City that is a pairing of teams at opposite ends of the playoff spectrum.
Curwensville has never won a district title. In fact, the only time a Lady Tide quintet ever advanced past the first round to play for a championship was two years ago, when Cranberry ended the Gold and Black\’s first winning season in 26 years, 56-49
Karns City, on the other hand, checks into the 6 p.m. game at Clarion University\’s Waldo S. Tippin Gym as defending champion, with four titles in the last five years and six in the last eight years. In all, Lady Gremlin teams have appeared in 10 of the last 12 District 9 Class AA championship games, winning seven.
The fundamentally sound Lady Gremlins were expected to continue that tradition with three of their top four scorers back, and they haven\’t disappointed second-year coach Dave Kerschbaumer. They finished second to perennial District 9 Class A power Union (23-3) in the tough East Division of the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference at 16-3 and are 20-5 overall.
Four of their losses were very close games, 51-50 to Duquesne (11-13), 44-42 to Union, 52-47 to Clarion-Limestone (20-6) and, in a mild surprise, 49-44 to Redbank Valley (16-10). Their other setback was 40-28 to Knoch (17-7). Union, which was handed its only KSAC defeat by Karns City (44-41) in December, will play Coudersport in the Class A title game and C-L will play Allegheny Mountain League champion Elk County Catholic in the Class A consolation game Saturday.
Strength of schedule Lady Gremlins the power rating edge over the Lady Tide when the seedings were made, so they received a bye and then squeezed past No. 5 Brookville 36-35 in the semis. They led 36-31 with a minute left but missed two free throws in the last 40 seconds and escaped only after a Lady Raider missed a foul shot after time expired.
Curwensville, 21-6 after Wednesday\’s loss at Clearfield in a regular season makeup game, already has ousted two KSAC East teams, seventh seed Moniteau 56-46 and third seed Redbank Valley 45-43 on Dani Struble\’s field goal with 2.2 seconds left. Karns City also owns wins over Redbank Valley 56-45 and Moniteau 51-35.
The Lady Tide has won 15 of its last 18 games, the Lady Gremlins 14 of their last 16. Both teams had long winning streaks in January, Curwensville with nine wins in a row and Karns City with eight.
Containing 5-9 senior forward Haley Callihan and 5-5 junior guard Allyson Kepple will be crucial for the Lady Tide. Callihan, who tied for 19th in District 9 scoring last season with 325 points and a 12.5 average, is scoring at an 11.7 clip with 292 points, and Kepple is close behind with 281 points, an 11.2 average that is up from 10.1 last season.
Other probable starters for the Lady Gremlins will be 5-7 senior guard Tausha Bower (140 points, 5.6 average), 5-10 sophomore forward Julia Zaludek (86, 3.4) and 5-5 junior Michelle Sweeny (60, 3.6). Junior guard Kylee Rankin (86, 3.4) and senior forward Kaitlyn Weibel (42, 1.7) also have played in every game.
\”They\’re a pretty well balanced team,\” Curwensville coach Vic Gearhart said. \”They\’ve got an inside and outside game. They\’ve got some big girls inside, which could present a problem for us, and they\’ve got a couple of spot shooters outside. Their point guard (Kepple) is similar to Redbank Valley\’s, a little girl who\’s going to penetrate and dish the ball.
\”We\’re anticipating they\’re going to play us man-to-man. I\’ve talked with different coaches, and they said they rarely press. A lot of people I\’ve talked with said they\’re strictly a halfcourt, man team, but we\’re going to prepare for anything. No. 00 (Bowser) is by far their best defensive player, and I look for her to pick up Dani and try to hound her all over the floor.\”
Struble, coming off a 30-point game at Clearfield, enters the game as District 9\’s top scorer with 523 points and a 19.4 average. Fellow senior Jackie White, who is averaging nine rebounds a game with 243, has 318 points for a 12.2 average. Soph Hannah Walls (164, 6.1), junior Holly Fink (101, 3.7) and senior Ronna Knepp (94, 3.5) round out the starting lineup. Soph Holly Lansberry (53, 1.9) and senior Shannon Hamm (40, 2.2) will give the regulars a rest.
\”We need to find Struble and White, obviously, and we\’re going to county on them heavily, but we need to get more offense out of Hannah,\” Gearhart said. \”Now, Holly is starting to look for her shot more. If Ronna can hit two or three shots around the foul line like she has, I think we have a good shot offensively.
\”We have to check off, box out and do a lot better job of rebounding, and we need to take care of the basketball better. I don\’t look for them to run a lot, so I think it\’s going to be a pace that we like.\”
A district title would be a fitting highlight on the Lady Tide resume that features an undefeated home record, the Moshannon Valley League title, the AML South Division crown and the school record for wins.
\”They\’ve already had a great year, but this would be the exclamation point,\” Gearhart said. \”I think we have an excellent opportunity, and I think they\’re looking forward to it.\”