DUBOIS – It was a night the Clearfield girls basketball team had to step up on the home court of a big enemy, the DuBois Lady Beavers.
They did just that in winning a back and forth contest that finally saw the Lady Bisons come away with a thrilling 43-41 victory to pick up win number ten on the year against nine defeats. It was also the sixth win in the last seven games for the resurgent Lady Bisons.
As Clearfield coach Joey Castagnolo said afterwards it wasn\’t easy, \”DuBois always plays very tough on their home floor. They are very scrappy and we knew we couldn\’t take them lightly. I am so thankful that the girls found a way to pull this one out.\”
It didn\’t start out well for Clearfield as they scored only five points in the first eight minutes to trail 10-8 to start the second period. In fact the Lady Bisons scored the games first two points with only eight seconds gone at the 7:52 mark. Then a severe scoring drought set in upon them as they didn\’t score again until there were just three seconds left in the opening frame. A drought that lasted 7 minutes and 49 seconds. A lot of teams wouldn\’t recover from that sort of start, but Clearfield had the will and found the way.
The second quarter was much kinder to Clearfield as they outscored their hosts 16-9 to take a two point lead into halftime, 21-19. It was a quarter were six Lady Bisons contributed points to the cause including big three\’s from Gwenn Porter and Sarah Kovalick.
The second half was a game of back and forth as both squads scored 22 point in the final sixteen minutes. Clearfield though had a 7 of 12 performance from the free throw line in the fourth quarter, while DuBois was only 2 of 5 down the stretch. Big difference, which made for a big win.
Lady Beaver, Jerri Watson, a sophomore, made a story line of her own as she paced all scorers with 18 on the night. Sixteen of those came in the second half and 10 alone in the fourth stanza to almost dump the Lady Bisons by herself. Watson hit for three treys during the battle.
Clearfield was lead by Porter and Annie Janocko with 10 points each. Amber Byerly dumped in eight but more importantly was just a giant on the boards, pulling rebound after rebound down all the while playing solid defense.
The Lady Bison junior varsity made it a clean sweep as they took the opener 24-20.
Castagnolo then mentioned, \”Amber (Byerly) played an all around great game for us. She was a huge part of why we won.\”
The Lady Bisons will venture to Patton Hall at Curwensville on Monday to meet up with the Curwensville Lady Tide for the first time this season. The JV contest starts at 6 pm with the varsity to immediately follow. The game can be heard on WOKW-FM, 102.9, starting just after 7 pm.
CLEARFIELD – Gwenn Porter 2 5-7 10, Annie Janocko 3 4-6 10, Sarah Kovalick 1 0-0 3, Jayme Ryan 1 0-0 3, Elizabeth Peters 2 0-2 4, Madison Sopic 1 3-4 5, Amber Byerly 3 2-5 8, Angela Moore 0 0-0 0, Lori Zalno 0 0-0 0.
TOTALS – 13 14-24 43
DUBOIS – Kirsten Wilcox 3 1-2 9, Hannah Gilmore 0 0-0 0, Jess Carlson 1 0-0 2, Sam Deter 1 0-0 3, Lindsey Obremski 1 3-4 5, Carly Wallock 0 2-2 2, Meghan Brown 0 0-0 0, Sadie Shick 0 0-0 0, Krista Tangren 1 0-0 2, Jerri Watson 7 1-3 18, Cassie Barton 0 0- 0. TOTALS – 14 7-11 41
SCORE BY QUARTERS
CLEARFIELD 5 16 9 13 43
DUBOIS 10 9 8 14 41
THREE-POINTERS: CLEARFIELD 3 – Porter, Kovalick, Ryan. DUBOIS 6 – Watson3, Wilcox 2, Deter.
