CURWENSVILLE – The Curwensville Lady Tide used a determined third quarter in their final game of the year Thursday night in beating the visiting Sheffield Lady Wolverines, 53-47, at Curwensville’s Patton Hall.
The Lady Tide, under first year head coach Rusty McCracken, finished out the 2009-10 basketball campaign with a 3-18 record.
McCracken was pleased that the season ended on a positive note, “It was a good way to end the season. Especially for the three seniors Tess (Bloom), Shayla (Buzard) and Lindsay (Barrett).” Then McCracken added, “We finally put a full game together and we played to win the game right from the start. We had a design on getting a win and it was nice to see that attitude.”
Curwensville fell behind by just three points at the half as Sheffield outscored the Lady Tide 15-13 in the first period and 11-10 in the second.
Then came the determined third quarter. And it was all Tide.
The Lady Tide used an offensive explosion and a hustling defense to outscore the Lady Wolverines 21-9 in that third eight minutes to take control.
After three quarters were in the books it was Curwensville over Sheffield 44-35 with only eight minutes left until victory number three would take place.
Sheffield mounted a small fourth stanza comeback but the Lady Tide kept them at bay long enough to get the big “W” to end the season.
Senior standout Tess Bloom of Curwensville ended her stellar career by pumping in 25 points to lead all scorers. Katie Wriglesworth had her best game of the year as she hit for 15 to help out Bloom on the offensive end.
The Lady Wolverines also had two girls in double figures. Abby Berlin netted 14 while teammate Amber Morrison chipped in with 10.
Talking about the future McCracken said afterwards, “We have some big shoes to fill with the seniors I mentioned earlier graduating. The off season starts Monday for the returning girls. It is up to them to step up to get ready for next year.”
In the first game of the evening, the junior varsity contest, Curwensville made a clean sweep by knocking off Sheffield, 27-19. Katrina Seaburn had eight points while Brittany Carter added six for Curwensville.
SHEFFIELD – Abby Berlin 5 4-4 14, Amber Morrison 5 0-0 10, Kristie Steffan 3 0-0 7, Caryn Copley 2 4-6 8, Kayla Steffan 4 0-3 8, Juli Ely 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 19 8-13 47
CURWENSVILLE – Tess Bloom 10 5-6 25, Taylor Bumbarger 1 0-0 2, Katie Wriglesworth 7 1-2 15, Shayla Buzard 1 0-2 2, Lindsay Barrett 0 0-0 0, Savannah Strickland 4 1-2 9, Katrina Seaburn 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 23 7-12 53
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
SHEFFIELD 15 11 9 12 47
CURWENSVILLE 13 10 21 9 53
THREE-POINTERS: SHEFFIELD – 1 Krisite Steffan CURWENSVILLE – None
OFFICIALS: Bill Zupich and Rob Murphy