CURWENSVILLE- Curwensville’s Lady Tide ended their season long drought by picking up their first win of the year Tuesday night at home at Patton Hall. The Lady Tide basketball squad put it all together in the final three periods to dump visiting Ridgway 38-33 on Senior Night. The victory leaves both the Tide and Ridgway with identical 1-21 records. The Lady Elkers beat the Lady Tide on January 9 31-28 for their only win of the 2007-08 campaign.
Ridgway jumped out to a quick 12-7 edge after the first eight minutes of action behind sophomore Bekka Leitzel and her 6 points. (Leitzel is the daughter of first year Ridgway head coach Sharon Leitzel.) Then the Tide turned up the defensive heat as they outscored their guests 10-3 in the second frame to take a two point half-time lead, 17-15.
Hannah Walls and Alesia Bressler, both juniors, paced Curwensville in the third stanza. Walls had five and Bressler four as the Lady Tide took the third quarter 12-9 to extend their lead to 29-24 with only eight minutes left to gain that elusive first win.
Both squads slugged it out in the final quarter 9-9 as the Elkers just couldn’t find the bucket enough to challenge their hosts.
Afterwards a very pleased Lady Tide coach Vic Gearhart stated, “The girls were really pleased to come away with the victory, especially on senior night. Getting the first win took a lot longer than we all thought but they hung in there and never quit.”
The Tide out rebounded the Elkers by a 31-23 margin which wasn’t lost on Gearhart, “Everybody that played, played well. We hustled all night long, particularly on the boards. We also had a season high 14 assists which means the girls were looking for each other.”
Emily Mitchell had 12 for Ridgway while Leitzel hit for 10. For Curwensville Bressler and Walls each finished with 12.
Ridgway did win the junior varsity contest 38-22.
The Lady Tide will travel to Sheffield this Friday with the JV game starting at 6 pm and the varsity to immediately follow.
RIDGWAY-Kirstie Shirey 3 0-0 6, Emily Mitchell 5 1-2 12, Jordan Cowan 1 0-0 2, Bekka Leitzel 3 3-4 10, Andrea Redmond 0 0-0 0, Olivia Horning 0 0-0 0, Lacey Gosnell 0 0-0 0, Kathy Shirey 1 0-2 2, Lauren Amacher 0 1-2 1. TOTALS 13 5-10 33
CURWENSVILLE-Mindy Desmett 2 0-0 4, Holly Fink 1 0-0 2, Alesia Bressler 6 0-0 12, Hannah Walls 5 0-0 12, Tess Bloom 1 1-2 3, Jenessa Stiles 1 0-0 3, Taylor Bumbarger 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 17 1-2 38
THREE-POINTERS: RIDGWAY-2, Mitchell 1, Leitzel 1. CURWENSVILLE-3, Walls 2, Stiles 1.
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
RIDGWAY 12 3 9 9 33
CURWENSVILLE 7 10 12 9 38
