Huntingdon outscored Clearfield 29-8 in the final frame to come up with their second victory of the young season, 89-67, against one defeat in a game that was closer than the final score indicates. The visiting Bearcats hit five treys in the fourth to help pull away from their hosts.
In a game that saw eight Bearcat players hit from beyond the arc with a total of 14 three pointers, and Clearfield sophomore Dakota Farmery score 24 points in her varsity debut, the fans that braved the cold, frosty night certainly got their moneys worth and more. The 6’ 3” center scored all of her points on the inside on lay-ups with one short jumper mixed in.
Farmery and fellow sophomore Breanna Peters kept the Lady Bisons close throughout the first half as Farmery had 14 and Peters 11 at the break. Farmery scored ten in the first quarter as Clearfield took a 20-17 lead into the second stanza which was 24-17 in favor of the Bearcats.
With the girls from Huntingdon leading 41-37 at the start of the second half the Bisons battled back to win the third period 22-19 to trail by just one, 60-59, going into the final eight minutes of play.
Then came the dreadful fourth period as Huntingdon had six players score and as mentioned earlier tossing in five three pointers to down a tired Lady Bison squad.
After the game Clearfield head coach Joey Castagnolo talked about the effort of his squad, “I was very happy with the effort of our team. We never quit out there, we just got tired and the effort was great to watch. But we never quit.”
About the offensive effort Castagnolo mentioned, “To score 67 points on opening night is really something special for us. I think we only hit 67 points or better last year three times.”
Then the Lady Bison coach said, “Yeah, we played offense pretty well throughout most of the game until we got tired but we need to play better on the defensive end to stay in ball games. For opening night we still weren’t sure of our defenses but it is obviously early in the season and it will be something we address in practice as you would expect.”
Clearfield, with just a total of eleven players on both the junior varsity and varsity roster, just ran out of gas, as many of the varsity girls also played several minutes in the JV game.
Huntingdon had four players in double digits on the evening with Alix Sellers scoring a team high 23 followed by 19 from Tara Smith, 11 by Casey Baird and 10 from Aaren Sellers.
Peters helped out Farmery by hitting for 15 with Rachel Thompson connecting for nine off of the Lady Bison bench.
The Clearfield Lady Bisons came away with a hard fought 53-51 in that junior varsity game in the night’s opening act.
Clearfield will be back in action on Friday evening as they entertain Central. The JV battle starts at 6 pm with the varsity tilt to immediately follow.
See game photos here: http://www.ladybisonsports.org/lbsbball121510.html
HUNTINGDON – 89 Tara Smith 7 2-5 19, Kathryn Marter 3 0-0 8, Alix Sellers 9 3-4 23, Aaren Sellers 3 2-2 10, Casey Baird 5 0-0 11, Kiara Burton 1 0-2 2, Cheyanne Snyder 2 0-0 6, Melanie Hawn 0 0-0 0, Katie Kurtz 2 0-0 5, Hannah Cunningham 1 0-0 3, Sam Mansberger 1 0-0 2, TOTALS – 34 7-13 89
CLEARFIELD – 67 Johanna Ryan 1 0-0 2, Kristen Butler 4 0-0 8, Lisa Ambuski 2 0-0 5, Breanna Peters 6 3-4 15, Dakota Farmery 11 2-6 24, Rachel Thompson 3 2-2 9, Katherine Sheeder 1 0-0 2, Brittany Renaud 1 0-1 2, Ciara Marsh 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 29 7-13 67
SCORE BY QUARTERS
HUNTINGDON 17 24 19 29 89
CLEARFIELD 20 17 22 8 67
THREE-POINTERS: HUNTINGDON – (14) Smith 3, Marter 2, Alix Sellers 2, Aaren Sellers 2, Snyder 2, Baird, Hawn and Cunningham CLEARFIELD – (2) Ambuski and Thompson.