CLEARFIELD – They say that seeing is believing. If that\’s the case then for those who weren’t fortunate enough to attend Monday night’s Clearfield/Philipsburg-Osceola girls basketball game they may find this hard to actually, well, believe.
The Lady Mounties found themselves down twice by 15 to Clearfield on the Lady Bisons home court. Somehow though, they managed a furious, earth shaking comeback to win 68-66 at the buzzer. Lady Mountie sophomore Megan Yonushonis hit the game winner as time ran out to give Philipsburg their third win of the year against 19 defeats.
With the score tied at 66 and 33.3 seconds on the clock the Lady Mounties put the ball in play in their own end of the court. The Lady Bisons decided not to pressure the ball as the Mounties dwindled the clock down to eight seconds before starting to execute their final play. Philipsburg got the ball inside to Yonushonis who put up a shot with 2.5 seconds remaining. The ball, in true “Hollywood Fashion”, rolled around and finally settled on the back of the rim for what seemed like an eternity before dropping through the net as the buzzer sounded.
Philipsburg head coach Kelly Kephart said afterwards, “I am so proud of our girls for never giving up when we were down most of the game by double digits.” She then added, “Our defense really created opportunities for our offense once we got going.”
It truly did take awhile for the Mounties to “get going” as the Bisons jumped out quickly to a 15-0 bulge with about three and half minutes gone in the first period. Clearfield’s only senior, Alanna Luzier, on Senior Night to boot, fueled the Bisons first half with 14 points which included four three pointers. After one the Bisons were up 23-9, and at the half 41-28.
“In the second half we just really came together and started to hit the open people, which made a huge difference for our offense,” echoed coach Kephart. Come together they did, as the visitors from Philipsburg outscored their hosts 40 to 25 in the second half to pull out the amazing win.
Clearfield coach Joey Castagnolo stated, “We played well most of the contest. We got off to a great start which has been our downfall over the past several weeks.”
About the sizzling Mountie comeback Castagnolo praised his opponent, “Give Philipsburg all the credit in the world. They were down by 15 at least twice in the game and they just kept battling back to put themselves in position to win.”
Hard to also believe was that Clearfield lost even though they made 11 three pointers on the night. Luzier and Jayme Ryan each had 5 from beyond the arc to pace the Bisons. The Lady Mounties hit 7 treys themselves as Alexis Cartwright nailed four, all in the first half.
Philipsburg had four ladies in double figures with Cartwright leading the way with 17. Yonushonis and Taylor Harpster followed with 14 apiece while Maureen Witters, a freshman, added 13. The Lady Bisons had Ryan with 19 and Luzier score 18 in a losing cause.
Clearfield falls to 5-16 on the year and will next play at DuBois on Wednesday to battle the Lady Beavers who beat the Bisons 56-55 on January 9. Junior Varsity starts at 6 pm with the varsity tilt to immediately follow.
The Lady Bison JV’s, under coach Jerry Stewart, improved to 9-12 on the season with a 57-46 victory in the opening game.
PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA – Alexis Cartwright 6 1-2 17, Rebecca Rebar 0 0-0 0, Megan Yonushonis 5 4-11 14, Erika Patrick 3 2-3 8, Taylor Harpster 5 2-2 14, Jayde Miller 0 0-0 0, Mackenzie Wilson 1 0-0 2, Maureen Witters 5 2-2 13 TOTALS 25 11-20 68
CLEARFIELD – Jayme Ryan 5 4-5 19, Alanna Luzier 6 1-3 18, Annie Janocko 2 0-2 4, Amber Byerly 1 1-4 3, Elizabeth Peters 2 0-0 4, Angela Moore 0 0-0 0, Gwenn Porter 2 0-0 4, Sarah Kovalick 1 3-4 6, Madison Sopic 4 0-0 8 TOTALS 23 9-18 66
FOULED OUT – CLEARFIELD: Janocko, Byerly.
THREE POINTERS – PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA 7: Cartwright 4, Harpster 2, Witters 1.
CLEARFIELD 11: Luzier 5, Ryan 5, Kovalick 1
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA 9 19 21 19 68
CLEARFIELD 23 18 15 10 66
