HYDE – Outstanding ball movement and tight man defense made the difference as once-beaten Elk County Catholic got past Clearfield 44-31 in Tuesday night\’s District 9 League showdown of two streaking girls basketball teams in Arthur J. Weiss Gymnasium.
The Lady Bisons\’ regular-season home finale was decided in the middle two periods when the visiting Lady Crusaders rang up a 27-13 advantage, highlighted by an improbable 23-3 run, and went on to record their 10th league win without a loss and their 13th victory in a row.
Clearfield\’s longest winning streak in four seasons ended at five, primarily because the Lady Bisons mustered only one field goal in the final 5:31 of the first half and one free throw in the first 6:57 of the third quarter.
\”Twelve and a half minutes with one basket and we lost to the best team in District 9 by 13,\” coach Joey Castagnolo said with a \”Wow!\” after the Lady Bisons slipped to 9-9 with four road games left before the District 9 Class AAA Playoffs.
\”That killed us, but they never missed an easy shot, and we struggled to make easy shots. Their defense wore us down.\”
Gwenn Porter and Sarah Kovalick provided the offensive spark in the early going, and Clearfield built a 15-11 lead with its zone defense by keeping ECC in check.
The Lady Bisons had a 9-7 edge on Porter\’s five points and pairs of free throws by Kovalick and Annie Janocko when Lady Crusader Bre Grimone beat the first-period buzzer with a putback.
Thanks to dandy assists by Porter, Kovalick sandwiched a short jumper and a fast-break layup around Grimone\’s 17-footer, and Porter forced up a tough runner on a drive through the lane to put the Lady Bisons ahead 15-11.
Then, they couldn\’t seem to buy a bucket in the 12:28 stretching spanning the halftime break.
ECC (19-1) reeled off 11 consecutive points, Kaitlyn Geci firing up two shots from the left corner and Emily Detsch working hard inside for two layups for nine of them.
A short jumper by Madison Sopic briefly interrupted the Lady Crusaders\’ run and punctuated the second quarter scoring with 1:35 left, setting the halftime count at 22-17.
The Lady Bisons couldn\’t get started in the third period, though, and Grimone converted two offensive rebounds and two nifty passes by Detsch into eight of the Lady Crusaders\’ 12 points that opened a 34-18 bulge before Janocko stepped back for a straightaway three-pointer with 1:03 left.
\”It\’s hard to play catch-up to a good basketball team like that,\” Castagnolo said. \”They\’re such good athletes and so well-coached, and they pass the ball so well. It\’s tough even if they have a five-point lead.\”
The veteran Lady Crusaders went into the fourth quarter with a 36-23 edge then showcased their ballhandling and crisp passing skills to play keepaway after the Lady Bisons got within nine points, 40-31, with 4:53 remaining.
\”They\’re all guards, and we\’re mostly forwards,\” Castagnolo noted. \”There was no need to foul them down the stretch, because they\’re an excellent foul shooting team. They\’re over 70 percent.\”
Janocko tried to trigger a Clearfield comeback in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter with two steals, an offensive rebound and six points of her team-high 11 points. She had five of the Lady Bisons\’ eight steals.
\”She anticipated the ball well on defense,\” Castagnolo said.
Grimone and Geci tallied 14 points apiece and Detsch added 10 for ECC, which shot 39.1 percent (18-for-46).
Grimone also pulled down 11 missed shots for a double-double as she keyed the Lady Crusaders\’ 33-19 rebounding advantage.
Clearfield canned 14 of 40 field goal tries for 35 percent but found it difficult getting open looks from behind the arc because of ECC\’s in-your-face defense. The Lady Bisons got off only eight treys, a very low number for them.
Each team had 19 turnovers, nine of Clearfield\’s coming in the second quarter.
The Lady Bisons begin their season-ending tour Friday at DuBois.
ECC also won the junior varsity game 22-15. Angela Moore had six points for Clearfield.
ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC — 44
Kirstie Pistner 0 0-0 0, Kaitlyn Geci 6 0-0 14, Bre Grimone 7 0-0 14, Abbey Salter 1 0-0 2, Emily Detsch 4 2-2 10, Karly Carnovale 0 0-0 0, Sandy Levenduski 0 2-2 2, Alyssa Hunter 0 0-0 0, Nikki Gaton 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 4-4 44.
CLEARFIELD — 31
Annie Janocko 4 2-2 11, Sarah Kovalick 2 2-2 6, Jayme Ryan 0 0-0 0, Elizabeth Peters 1 0-0 2, Gwenn Porter 3 1-2 7, Madison Sopic 1 0-0 2, Amber Byerly 1 1-2 3, Lori Zalno 0 0 0-0 0, Jocelyn Schultz 0 0-0 0, Angela Moore 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 12 6-8 31.
Three-Point Field Goals: Elk County Catholic 2 (Geci 2); Clearfield 1 (Janocko).
Score By Quarters:
Elk County Catholic 9 13 14 8 – 44
Clearfield 9 8 6 8 – 31
Officials: Dave Blair, Bill Zupich and Dan Gales.
