PHILIPSBURG – The Clearfield Lady Bisons tasted defeat for the first time this season after digging a hole in the first period at Philipsburg-Osceola Monday night in losing to the once beaten Lady Mounties, 60-49.
The Lady Mounties, under head coach Missy Helsel, stand at 6-1 thus far, while the Lady Bisons are now 3-1 with Ridgway on deck.
Clearfield coach Joey Castagnolo talked about his squad getting behind 18-6 after the first eight minutes of action, “We just got behind early on and started to panic. Then every time we started to make a run they would hit a big bucket and take away our momentum.”
The battle actually started out as a three-point contest as the Lady Mounties buried four and Clearfield hit two from beyond the arc before a two point field goal was made with 3:10 left in the opening frame by Lady Mountie Megan Yonushonis.
The Lady Bisons started the second period with an 8-1 run to cut the Lady Mountie margin to 19-14.
Philipsburg-Osceola answered however, with a 12-0 run of their own to help them to a 29-17 lead going into the half.
Castagnolo commented, “They made all the easy short shots and we didn’t.” Then he added, “They played tough defense on us all game long though.”
The Lady Bisons didn’t fare well in the third stanza either, being outscored by their hosts 17-12, giving the Mounties a 17 point edge, 46-29, after three.
Madison Sopic came alive in the second half as she scored six points in each of the final two eight minutes and fueled a furious rally for Clearfield. Sopic paced the Lady Bisons with 14 points.
Clearfield did cut the Philipsburg-Osceola margin to 54-47 in the fourth period, but that would be the closest the Bisons would come to overtaking their hosts.
Gwenn Porter helped the cause on offense for Clearfield by scoring ten while Amber Byerly tossed in eight.
Taylor Harpster of the Mounties led all scorers with 19, ten of those coming in the final period. Maureen Witters was a close second with 18 and Lauren Simcox hit double digits with 11 for the Lady Mountie offense.
In a final comment Castagnolo found a positive about the battle, “I told the kids we lost to a good team tonight and we will learn from this and get better.”
In junior varsity action Clearfield had another furious rally of their own only to come up short 37-30.
Junior high action was the first game of the evening as Clearfield won that contest 33-28.
The Lady Bisons return to action at home on Wednesday night when they host the Lady Elkers of Ridgway. The JV game starts at 6 pm with the varsity to immediately follow.
Listen to Lady Bison basketball on WOKW-FM, 102.9, this Wednesday with the pre-game starting at 7:15 pm.
CLEARFIELD – 49
Jayme Ryan 3 0-0 7, Gwenn porter 3 3-4 10, Madison Sopic 7 0-0 14, Amber Byerly 4 0-3 8, Elizabeth Peters 0 2-2 2, Breanna Peters 1 3-3 5, Angela Moore 1 0-0 3, Lori Zalno 0 0-0 0, Kristen Butler 0 0-0 0, Rachel Thompson 0 0-0 0, Lisa Ambuski 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 19 8-12 49
PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA – 60
Maureen Witters 6 3-4 18, Mackenzie Wilson 2 0-0 5, Taylor Harpster 6 6-7 19, Lauren Simcox 4 1-1 11, Megan Yonushonis 2 1-6 5, Macy Harpster 1 0-1 2, Emily Meersand 0 0-0 0, Kelci Knepp 0 0-0 0, Marissa Albert 0 0-0 0, Danielle McKnight 0 0-0 0, Briana Rusnak 0 0-0 0. TOTALS – 21 11-19 60
SCORE BY QUARTERS
CLEARFIELD 6 11 12 20 49
PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA 18 11 17 14 60
THREE-POINTERS: CLEARFIELD – 3: Ryan, Porter, Moore; PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA – 8: Witters 3, Simcox 2, Wilson, Taylor Harpster.