Down by seven at the half, the Damsels pecked their way back into the contest in the second sixteen minutes to pick up the win in their final game of the 2009-10 season. Moshannon Valley finishes with a 6-16 mark under head coach Aaron Mills.
The Damsels had beaten Curwensville in the first game of the year, at Moshannon Valley, 38-24 in a game were the Tide scored just seven points through three periods.
It was senior night at Patton Hall and this time out the Lady Tide found some offense over the first and second frames jumping out to an 11-8 first quarter margin.
Curwensville continued to put pressure on their guests in the second quarter as they outscored Mo Valley 9-5 to go in at the half up by seven, 20-13. With less than a minute to go in the first half the Tide gained their biggest lead of the game, 20-11. Then came a dreaded cold third quarter for Curwensville.
Coach Rusty McCracken of Curwensville warned his girls at halftime saying, “I told the girls we cannot have a cold quarter in the second half if we wanted a chance to come out with the win. And in the third quarter, for whatever reason, we went cold.”
Moshannon Valley combined a hot third quarter offensively when Curwensville went cold as they outscored their hosts 13-5 to surge in front after three, 26-25.
Damsel sophomore Ruthie Shawver gave Mo Valley their first lead of the evening (26-25) with just three seconds remaining in the third stanza with a two point field goal.
The lead did change hands a few times early in the fourth and final eight minutes before the Damsels pulled away to clinch the Moshannon Valley League battle.
Tess Bloom of Curwensville and Vanessa Rowley of Moshannon Valley, both senior point guards, each had 20 points to lead their respective teams in scoring.
The two squads combined for a total of 47 free throws with the Lady Tide going 16 of 23 and the Damsels making 12 of 24.
McCracken talked about the overall performance of his team, “I can never say they (Curwensville) don’t play hard, because they always do. We definitely have shown improvement over the course of this season by working hard and playing hard. Hopefully that will carry over to next year’s team.”
In the junior varsity contest it was the Lady Tide coming away with the victory in beating the Damsels 35-25.
Curwensville, 2-18, will conclude their 2009-10 season on Thursday night at home against Sheffield. The JV game will start at 6 pm with the varsity tipping off immediately afterwards.
MOSHANNON VALLEY – 43
Taylor Murarik 2 0-3 4, Vanessa Rowley 7 5-6 20, Claire Harlow 1 4-8 6, Maria Charney 2 2-2 6, Ruthie Hutton 0 0-0 0, Brianna Shawver 2 1-4 5, Chelsea Neff 1 0-1 2, TOTALS – 15 12-24 43
CURWENSVILLE – 36
Savannah Strickland 1 0-0 2, Taylor Bumbarger 1 6-9 8, Courtney Bachelier 0 0-0 0, Tess Bloom 5 8-8 20, Katie Wriglesworth 1 2-4 4, Lindsay Barrett 0 0-0 0, Katrina Seaburn 0 0-0 0, Shayla Buzard 1 0-2 2, TOTALS – 9 16-23 36
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MOSHANNON VALLEY 8 5 13 17 43
CURWENSVILLE 11 9 5 11 36
THREE-POINTERS: MOSHANNON VALLEY – 1 Rowley CURWENSVILLE – 2 Bloom 2
OFFICIALS: Marv Martell, Lee Martell and Rich Gormont