CLARION – No \’A\’ game. No victory. No District 9 Class AAA championship.
Coming off perhaps their finest over-all effort of the season in the semifinal win over Punxsutawney Wednesday, the Clearfield Lady Bisons did a complete flip-flop Saturday and paid the consequences as St. Marys rolled to a 56-28 win in Clarion University\’s Tippin Gym.
\”We picked the wrong time to play our worst basketball game of the year,\” a dejected coach Joey Castagnolo said after his team fell to 13-11 in the school\’s first title game appearance since 2004. \”I don\’t know if it was this college atmosphere, or the stage, or the big gym, but we just looked scared.
\”We never got any kind of a roll to get any little bit of confidence.\”
The Lady Dutch, who had to rally for a pair of four-point wins over the Lady Bisons during the regular season, weren\’t lacking in that department while claiming their second consecutive crown.
They scored the game\’s first 10 points, took command at 24-13 by netting nine of the last 10 points in the second quarter and then started the second half with a 17-4 run in less than six minutes for a 41-17 bulge.
Clearfield hit only three of 23 shots in the first half and wound up 10-for-55 for 18.2 percent.
St. Marys\’ stifling man-to-man defense had more than a little to do with that.
\”They played us like Punxsy did, but much better,\” Castagnolo said. \”And that kind of surprised me.\”
Sophomore standout Kayla Hoohuli, District 9\’s leading scorer, ignited the Lady Dutch\’s quick start with a steal and layup on Clearfield\’s first possession and a three-pointer from the right wing to reach the 600-point plateau for the season.
However, she picked up her third foul and went to the bench with 1:21 left in the quarter and the Lady Dutch ahead 12-5.
The Lady Bisons, who had five turnovers and five misses before Madison Sopic buried a trey from out front at the 3:22 mark, couldn\’t take enough advantage of Hoohuli\’s absence.
\”I thought, with Hoohuli having the three fouls, well, now\’s the run,\” Castagnolo said. \”I thought we\’d play with some confidence, and we still didn\’t.\”
And the scoreboard didn\’t change again until the second period, when Clearfield narrowed the margin to 15-12 on Gwenn Porter\’s drive for a conventional three-point play, Amber Byerly\’s free throw and Jayme Ryan\’s trey with 5:31 remaining in the half.
\”When Jayme hit that three, I thought maybe we\’re going to get on a roll,\” Castagnolo said. \”Then we got the ball right back, and we missed two free throws.\”
At that point, Hoohuli finally talked coach Bob Swanson into getting back on the floor.
The 5-8 guard was fouled on a tough jumper in heavy traffic in the paint for a three-point play and punctuated the Lady Dutch\’s mini 9-1 run with a driving, left-handed layup.
There was no scoring in the final 2:05 of the half.
\”We just never got any continuity at all, and I\’ve gotta credit their defense,\” Castagnolo said.
Seven points by Tia Cunningham, two baskets and three dandy assists by Hoohuli and four fast-break points by Emily Hathorn highlighted the Lady Dutch\’s third-quarter spurt that left only the final score in doubt.
Hoohuli finished with a game-high 16 points, nine rebounds, five assists, five steals and two blocked shots.
Cunningham and Amanda Simbeck contributed 10 apiece and Megan Herbstritt added nine more to the surprisingly-balanced St. Marys offense, for Hoohuli has scored almost 50 percent of the Lady Dutch points this season.
\”The other kids picked up the slack for Hoohuli scoring only 16,\” Castagnolo said. \”They passed the ball well. They played, as a team, well.\”
One glaring statistic that didn\’t go unnoticed by Castagnolo was the rebounding totals, St. Marys collecting 64 to Clearfield\’s 43.
\”That\’s unbelievable for a high school girls game,\” he said. \”We got beat on the offensive boards bad. And we needed those rebounds. Look at the first half. That was when we need to get stops, and we couldn\’t get the rebounds.\”
Simbeck, in particular, was a thorn in Clearfield\’s side in a rare start.
The 5-7 junior, who had nine points in the previous two games against the Lady Bisons, pulled down 18 missed shots, eight of them under the offensive boards, and made up for 2-for-15 shooting by making six of 10 free throws.
Herbstritt also had a good all-around game with 11 rebounds, four assists and five steals, and Gina Pelgrin had nine rebounds for the Lady Dutch.
Porter\’s eight points topped the Lady Bisons, who never reached double-digits in any quarter, and the 5-6 point guard snared eight rebounds to share team honors with Elizabeth Peters.
Clearfield, which made only two of 16 three-point tries, was 6-for-16 at the foul line after going 20-for-24 against Punxsy and had 26 turnovers, 17 of which were steals by the more-aggressive Lady Dutch.
\”We just had a total breakdown in every phase of the game,\” Castagnolo said. \”We\’ve played too much basketball to play like that.
\”But we get to play Tuesday to make amends, I told the girls.\”
The Lady Bisons will go against Franklin (20-5) in one of the two PIAA Class AAA play-in games. Franklin beat Slippery Rock 60-55 in double overtime Saturday for third place in District 10.
St. Marys (21-2) will meet Mt. Pleasant (18-6), the District 7 (WPIAL) No. 5 team on Friday.
CLEARFIELD — 28
Jayme Ryan 1 0-0 3, Gwenn Porter 3 2-5 8, Annie Janocko 0 0-0 0, Sarah Kovalick 2 0-2 4, Madison Sopic 1 0-0 3, Elizabeth Peters 0 1-4 1, Amber Byerly 2 2-3 6, Lori Zalno 0 1-2 1, Jocelyn Schultz 1 0-0 2, Angela Moore 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 10 6-16 28.
ST. MARYS — 56
Kayla Hoohuli 6 3-5 16, Tia Cunningham 4 0-0 10, Emily Hathorn 3 0-0 6, Amanda Simbeck 2 6-10 10, Megan Herbstritt 4 1-2 9, Gina Pelgrin 0 1-4 1, Leann Levenduski 0 0-0 0, Chelsea Walker 1 0-0 2, Mandy Gerarge 0 0-0 0, Rachel Walker 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 21 11-22 56.
Three-Point Field Goals: Clearfield 2 (Ryan 1, Sopic 1); St. Marys 2 (Hoohuli 1, Cunningham 2).
Score by Quarters:
Clearfield 5 8 7 8 – 28
St. Marys 12 12 19 13 – 56
Officials: Colin Gaiser, Rich Rhoades, Kris Stiglitz.
