HYDE – The mark of a good team is being able to find a way to win on an off night, and Clearfield was able to do that against Brookville in a District 9 League girls basketball game dominated by the defenses in Weiss Gym Tuesday night.
The once-beaten Lady Bisons, led by Amber Byerly and Madison Sopic, prevailed 39-28 on their coldest shooting night of the season.
Actually, neither team could get into any kind of rhythm on offense.
Open looks were few and far between.
Almost every shot was contested, especially those under or near the hoops.
The Lady Bisons, whose previous low total on the season was 49 points, connected on only 14 of their 61 attempts, just under 23 percent, against the Lady Raider man-for-man.
“”It wasn’t one of our better efforts, but I’ll take it,” coach Joey Castagnolo said following Clearfield’s sixth victory.
“Offensively, we just weren’t firing on all cylinders. Our dribble-drive penetration wasn’t working.
“You’ve got to hand it to Brookville for playing tough defense.”
Meanwhile, the visitors found Clearfield’s trapping 1-3-1 zone equally difficult to solve.
Only 10 of Brookville’s 53 shots found the net. That figures out to a frigid 18.9 percent.
Castagnolo was much happier with that phase of the game, adding, “We trapped. We jumped the passing lanes. We did real well defensively.”
Byerly and Sopic just missed double-doubles on a night when leading scorer Gwenn Porter did not have a point.
Byerly worked hard on the inside for a game-high 15 points and nine rebounds.
Sopic continued her steady backcourt play with nine points, the first game she’s failed to reach double figures, and four assists to go with a game-high 12 rebounds.
The high number of off-target shots resulted in both teams grabbing 42 rebounds.
“Our rebounding was excellent on both ends,” Castagnolo said. “I thought that won the game for us.”
Pacing the Lady Raiders (3-8, 1-4 D9L) under the boards were Emily Ferraro with 12 and Brynna Hetrick with eight.
They also were the big guns on offense with 13 and 10 points, respectively.
“I was worried about Hetrick,” Castagnolo said of Brookville’s top pointmaker, who was averaging 11.6 points. “She’s a three-point specialist.”
He was quick to credit Porter for keeping Hetrick in check. The Lady Raiders’ lone returning starter did swish her 27th and 28th treys but misfired on seven other long-range flings.
“(Gwenn) just bothered the heck out of their point guard,” Castagnolo pointed out.
The game’s first points came on a trey by Lady Bison Jayme Ryan from the right corner with 2:44 gone.
Clearfield never trailed, but the score was knotted three times before Byerly made the second of two free throws to put the Lady Bisons in front to stay, 10-9, with 16.4 seconds left in the first quarter.
The margin increased to 17-9 in the first two minutes of the second period as Ryan hit another bomb from her favorite spot on the court and Sopic followed by driving the lane twice, dishing to Byerly for a lay-up on the first one and then pulling up for a jumper.
Later in the half, Byerly missed a pair of free throws but came right back to flip in two field goals and later cash in two foul shots to give the Lady Bisons a 24-12 bulge.
“We finally opened it up inside with Amber, and that sure did help a lot,” Castagnolo said.
Brookville cut the Clearfield lead to 24-15 by intermission but never got closer than eight points in the low-scoring second half.
Sopic’s mid-range jumper and Byerly’s putback were the only points of the third quarter until Ferraro broke the ice for the Lady Raiders via two free throws with 2:22 remaining. Hetrick followed with a three-pointer from the left wing that set the score at 28-20.
However, the Lady Bisons countered with the last four points of the quarter and the first seven in the final period, all from post players Elizabeth Peters with five and Byerly with two plus a dandy assist on a Peters layup for Clearfield’s last points with 5:34 to play.
The Lady Raiders, who were missing injured No. 2 scorer Alyssa Byerly (wrist), made the final score respectable with three field goals in the last two minutes.
Clearfield takes its 2-0 D9L record over the mountain Friday to play DuBois (5-4), which was beaten 67-35 by front-running St. Marys Tuesday night.
In the prelim, coach Jerry Stewart’s Lady Bison jayvees hiked their record to 4-3 with a 31-26 win. Rachel Thompson was high with nine points. Breanna Peters added eight.
District 9 League Standings – St. Marys 3-0, Clearfield 2-0, Elk County Catholic 2-0, Punxsutawney 1-1, DuBois 1-3, Brookville 1-4, Bradford 0-2.
For pictures of the game go to — http://www.ladybisonsports.org/lbsbballF.html
BROOKVILLE — 28
Brynna Hetrick 4 0-0 10, Shannon Shaffer 0 0-0 0, Kaitlyn Hill 1 0-0 2, Amber Cook 0 1-4 1, Emily Ferraro 4 5-6 13, Chey Ross 1 0-0 2, Logan Snell 0 0-0 0, Jaime Peer 0 0-0 0, Francheska Smith 0 0-0 0, Karly Reinsel 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 10 6-10 28.
CLEARFIELD — 39
Jayme Ryan 2 0-0 6, Gwenn Porter 0 0-0 0, Madison Sopic 4 1-2 9, Elizabeth Peters 2 1-2 5, Amber Byerly 5 5-8 15, Lori Zalno 0 0-0 0, Angela Moore 0 0-0 0, Breanna Peters 1 2-2 4, Lisa Ambuski 0 0-0 0, Rachel Thompson 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 14 9-14 39.
Three-Point Field Goals: Brookville 2 (Hetrick 2); Clearfield 2 (Ryan 2).
Score by Quarters:
Brookville 9 6 5 8 – 28
Clearfield 10 14 8 7 – 39
Officials – Marvin Martell, Lee Martell, Craig Witherow.