HYDE – A berth in the PIAA Class AAA Playoffs as well as the District 9 championship game will be at stake when the Clearfield and visiting Punxsutawney girls basketball teams showcase their contrasting styles on both ends of the floor in the Arthur J. Weiss Gymnasium Wednesday night.
The second-seeded Lady Bisons (12-10) prefer an up-tempo offense and 1-3-1 zone defense.
The third-seeded Lady Chucks (7-15) will be more deliberate in their half-court sets and rely on man-for-man defense.
Both teams prevailed at home in their District 9 League games this season, Clearfield winning 34-27 on Jan. 21 and Punxsutawney gaining revenge 36-31 in overtime on Feb. 11 for the lone win in its last six games.
Coach Joey Castagnolo\’s Lady Bisons finished much stronger with eight victories in 10 outings.
Neither team has played since Feb. 13, though.
The layoff doesn\’t concern Castagnolo as much as keeping players fresh after a rash of illness in the past week and solving Punxsy\’s trapping man defense.
\”I\’m worried about the fatigue factor,\” he said. \”Four of our starters have missed school because they were sick. Not just home. In bed. We didn\’t even practice one day last week.\”
The Lady Bisons won\’t be able relax against the Lady Chucks\’ pressure.
\”They play tough man defense, and they play excellent help defense,\” he said. \”We\’ve got to spread out our offense more, and we\’re emphasizing that when they double-team us to kick it back to the other guard. We have to drive to the basket more, too.\”
Clearfield shows great balance in scoring with six players averaging from 5.5 to 7.7 points, four at 7.2 or better.
Senior Annie Janocko leads with 169 points, but close behind are classmate Sarah Kovalick with 162 and juniors Gwenn Porter with 159 and Jayme Ryan with 158. Juniors Amber Byerly and Madison Sopic have 126 and 109, respectively, and Elizabeth Peters has 81.
The Lady Bisons are shooting 36 percent from the field with almost half of their shots from behind the three-point line. They\’ve made 81 of 314 treys, topped by Ryan\’s 41 and Kovalick\’s 26 from the wings.
Punxsy leans heavily on senior Allie Miller inside and sophomore point guard Jenna Reitz outside, for they\’ve accounted for 54.7 percent of the team\’s points. Miller has netted 256 for an 11.6 average that was 22nd in District 9 during the regular season. Reitz has 198 points, a 9.0 average.
\”We match up well with Miller, but Reitz had seven three-pointers against this year,\” Castagnolo pointed out. \”She\’ll shoot NBA threes, too. She rarely shoots twos against us.\”
Second-chance points might prove crucial, but only Byerly is averaging two offensive rebounds for the Lady Bisons.
\”We haven\’t been a good rebounding team the whole year,\” Castagnolo said. \”We have to do better. I think the problem is that once the shot\’s up, they want to go back and play defense instead of hanging around and getting the long rebound or hitting the boards. We\’ve been working on that.\”
Byerly tops the Lady Bisons in 120, a 5.5 average, while Janocko has 98, Peters 91 and Sopic 82.
Clearfield will be seeking its district playoff win since beating Brookville 48-44 in 2004.
The winner moves on to challenge No. 1 seed St. Marys for the district title Saturday at 1 p.m. in Clarion University\’s Tippin Gym.
