Hanover Beats Clearfield 54-31 for Lady Bison Blast-off Tourney Title

HYDE – Clearfield was able to recover after stumbling out of the gate against Bald Eagle Area in the opening round of the Lady Bison Basketball Blast-Off Tournament Friday night, but Hanover never allowed the hosts to get into their run-and-gun game Saturday afternoon and claimed the championship with a 54-31 victory in Arthur J. Weiss Gymnasium.

 

Classy playmaker Chelsea Kehr, named the tourney\’s Most Valuable Player, and Jamie Frey scored 11 points apiece to lead the Hawkettes, off to the school\’s first 2-0 start in years.

 

\”It\’s an awesome start for Hanover girls basketball,\” said first-year head coach Steve Smith, who was guiding the junior high boys program when he accepted the challenge of guiding the Hawkettes to their first winning season since 1995-96. \”The girls have been playing hard and they really earned it.\”

 

Clearfield coach Joey Castagnolo agreed.

 

\”They beat us in all phases, and we got down and discouraged,\” he said. \”There was no pep or energy. It seemed like we were flat, and I don\’t understand why. That sure wasn\’t the same team that played in the second half against BEA. I\’m disappointed, to say the least.\”

 

The Lady Bisons, led by Alanna Luzier\’s nine points, failed to break double-digits in any quarter, and Castagnolo credited Smith and the Hawkettes for that.

 

\”He had a great game plan,\” the ninth-year Lady Bison coach said. \”They sagged on our man cuts, and the kids got frustrated. We couldn\’t adjust. We couldn\’t run our plays. They took everything away from us.\”

 

The Lady Bisons, who went without a field goal in the first nine minutes of that game, found the range only once while the Hawkettes were flying to an 11-2 lead after 3:46.

 

\”Getting off to a bad start didn\’t help our confidence,\” Castagnolo said. \”And I looked and looked for some kind of a spark with different combinations, but it wasn\’t there tonight. Nobody could get hot.\”

 

Clearfield managed back-to-back scores only two times and wound up with more turnovers (18) than shots (17) in the second half.

 

Hanover survived a 7-2 Clearfield spurt late in the first quarter to take a 15-9 lead into the second period and expanded that to 28-17 by intermission.

 

Any hopes of a Lady Bison comeback in the second half were dimmed when the Hawkettes reeled off eight consecutive points for a 40-19 cushion midway through the third quarter, which ended with the visitors in control, 44-22.

 

Kehr, who scored 26 points in Hanover\’s 54-44 win over DuBois Central Catholic, showcased her overall talents even more against the Lady Bisons. She had five assists in the first half and six overall. Two of her field goals were on putbacks after offensive rebounds and two were strong drives to the basket on fast breaks. The fifth was a three-pointer from long range.

 

\”Chelsea\’s a do-all player,\” Smith said. \”She can penetrate. She can dish. She can shoot the three. And she\’s a team player.

 

\”Chelsea definitely is the gasoline that makes our engine run. The rest of the girls are the pistons, and we\’re just fittting in real well right now.\”

 

The 5-6 senior, who is an outstanding softball pitcher and plans to play both sports at Lebanon Valley College, made a lasting impression on Castagnolo.

 

\”Oh, my, she\’s a nice point guard,\” he said. \”She runs the floor like a point guard should. She sees the whole floor. She hits the post. And the posts believe in her; they kick it back out. She\’s just the captain out there.

 

\”And I was impressed with their inside play. They didn\’t miss the easy shot in the first half, and that demoralized us. Other kids miss that shot, and we can run on that. They never missed. They kept us from running. On defense, they fronted our posts real well, too.\”

 

Hanover outrebounded Clearfield 30-21 and hit 23 of 57 shots for 47 percent.

 

In contrast, the Lady Bisons were only 12-for-48 for 25 percent and committed 26 turnovers.

 

\”We just had a bad night,\” said Castagnolo, whose team will try to rebound Wednesday against Curwensville before opening District 9 League play at Punxsutawney Friday.

 

Lady Bisons Luzier and Jayme Ryan, who was held to a pair of three-pointers after scoring 18 points against BEA, were named to the All-Tournament Team along with Kehr, Hawkette Jordan Beans, DuBois Central Catholic\’s Andrea Moyer and BEA\’s Danielle Reese.

 

Moyer and Reese scored in double figures both games, with Moyer fueling the Lady Cardinals\’ 46-39 victory in the nip-and-tuck consolation game with 19 points. Reese had 10 for the Lady Eagles.

 

Other than a 23-18 edge by DCC late in the first half, neither team led by more than three points until first-year coach Sam Kirk\’s Lady Cardinals pulled away on free throws in the final 1:22.

 

The game was tied eight times, and there were 10 lead changes. First-year coach Brandy Preslovich\’s Lady Eagles failed to score after taking a 39-26 lead with 3:51 to play.

 

Moyer, a 5-8 senior, got DCC close with a putback and Meagan Thomas put the Lady Cardinals ahead to stay on a fast-break lay-up with 3:09 left. Moyer and Thomas swished two free throws apiece to make it 44-39 with 1:22 remaining, and Moyer added two more foul shots in the final 15 seconds.

 

Megan Witherow of Curwensville scored 17 points and Kim Cadori added 10 as DuBois Central Catholic downed Clearfield 52-43 in the junior varsity prelim. Sarah Kovalick and Angela Moore led coach Jerry Stewart\’s Lady Bisons (1-1) with 10 points apiece.