HYDE – For the second time in less than 24 hours, the Clearfield Area High School girls basketball team wasted a solid first half performance Saturday afternoon, leaving coach Joey Castagnolo more than a little perplexed.
\”I just can\’t put my finger on what\’s going wrong in the second half,\” he said after the Lady Bisons fell to 4-7 with a 49-44 non-league loss to perennial District 9 Class A contender Union in Arthur J. Weiss Gymnasium.
\”This just shouldn\’t be happening,\” he added while checking the scorebook and statistics that showed the Lady Bisons making only four of 24 shots and committing 13 turnovers in the final 16 minutes. \”We\’re a veteran team. We shouldn\’t be having these turnovers.\”
At the outset, the Lady Bisons appeared to have put Friday night\’s disheartening 62-58 home-court loss to St. Marys behind them, a District 9 League game in which they led 35-23 at halftime and by as many as 16 points in the third quarter.
They traded points with the Golden Damsels, who were riding a seven-game winning streak, for most of the first quarter before Elizabeth Peters snapped the third tie with a pair of free throws with 2:13 left and sparkplug Gwenn Porter added a basket nearly two minutes later for a 16-12 advantage.
Jayme Ryan\’s hot hand kept Clearfield ahead in the second quarter. She swished all of her team-high eight points in succession, with a pair of three-pointers from the right wing making it 24-19 with 2:30 left in the half.
After a putback by Golden Damsel Lepha Logue, Peters banked home two in the low post, Madison Sopic turned a steal into a conventional three-point play and Sarah Kovalick tacked on a free throw for a 30-21 bulge with 34.8 seconds remaining.
What Castagnolo assessed as the crucial point of the game ensued after a Union miss and a Kovalick rebound.
\”We had the ball and up by nine, and they scored four quick points right at the end of the half,\” he explained.
Brooke Pollock\’s short jumper on the left baseline and Melissa Shook\’s steal and layup in the final 19 seconds chopped the Lady Bison lead to five points.
\”We shot and missed, and they came down and scored,\” Castagnolo said. \”We had a turnover, and they got a layup. That got them momentum going into the second half.\”
The Golden Damsels dominated the first 5:50 of the third quarter to grab a 35-32 lead with six points from Logue and four from Pollock.
Clearfield answered with six consecutive points on Porter\’s seventh rebound and fast-break layup, Amber Byerly\’s putback and Sopic\’s strong drive down the lane before Golden Damsel Lanae Cicciarelli scored with eight seconds remaining in the third period.
Ahead 38-37, the Lady Bisons experienced another lengthy dry spell that allowed the Golden Damsels to gain the upper hand. Union led 43-38 when Kovalick accounted for Clearfield\’s only field goal in 13 fourth-quarter shots, a trey from the right wing with 3:50 remaining.
Free throws by Kovalick and Byerly kept the Lady Bisons close, 47-43, with 1:43 to go, but another foul shot by Kovalick with 7.7 seconds showing on the clock was all they got as the were unable to capitalize on the Golden Damsels twice missing the front end of one-and-ones.
Union (10-4) was paced by its trio of 5-10 forwards. Logue scored 12 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Pollock came off the bench to net 10 points and Tina Lipps pulled down 12 missed shots.
Lipps, a sophomore who leads the Golden Damsels in scoring (11.5) and rebounding (11.5) was limited to five points by the Lady Bisons, ending her string of double-doubles at 10.
OVERTIME — Union was 19-for-60 from the field for 31.7 percent, while Clearfield was 14-for-54 for 26 percent… Byerly matched Porter\’s seven rebounds and Peters snaring six for the Lady Bisons, who were outrebounded 41-27… Seven Lady Bisons scored from five to eight points… The Lady Bisons are booked for three District 9 League games this week, Monday at Brookville, Wednesday at home against Punxsutawney and Friday at Bradford. Clearfield, Brookville and Punxsy are 2-3 and Bradford is 1-4 in league action…
Clearfield\’s junior varsity also was unable to maintain a halftime lead and suffered a 36-28 setback. Rachel Thompson had 10 points for the Lady Bisons. Ashley MacKinlay led the Golden Damsels with 10.
UNION — 49
Lanae Cicciarelli 2 0-0 4, Courtney Frederick 3 1-4 8, Lepha Logue 4 4-7 12, Melissa Shook 4 0-0 9, Tina Lipps 2 1-3 5, Amanda Barger 0 0-0 0, Brooke Pollock 4 2-2 10, Heather Murray 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 19 8-16 49.
CLEARFIELD — 44
Annie Janocko 1 4-4 6, Sarah Kovalick 1 3-6 6, Jayme Ryan 3 0-0 8, Gwenn Porter 2 2-2 6, Elizabeth Peters 2 2-2 6, Madison Sopic 2 1-1 5, Amber Byerly 3 1-2 7, Lori Zalno 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 14 13-17 44.
Three-Point Field Goals: Union 3 (Cicciarelli 1, Frederick 1, Shook 1); Clearfield 3 (Kovalick 1, Ryan 2).
Score by Quarters
Union 12 13 12 12 – 49
Clearfield 16 14 8 6 – 44
Officials: Rich Gormont, Marvin Martell, Lee Martell.
