CLEARFIELD – Sooner or later Clearfield girls basketball coach Joey Castagnolo knew his team would put together a somewhat complete game to earn their first victory of the 2010-11 season.
That sooner or later came Tuesday night on the Lady Bison home court as they stopped rival Curwensville’s two game winning streak to pick up the win with a convincing 60-29 victory.
As Castagnolo said once the final buzzer sounded, “Now the kids have confidence knowing that they can win. Hopefully we will build on this and I think we will.”
After a tight first quarter with Clearfield leading 10-8, thanks to eight points by sophomore Breanna Peters, the Bisons started to stretch their margin by outscoring Curwensville 10-6 in the second eight minutes to take a six point lead into the lockers, 20-14.
Clearfield actually built their second quarter margin to 16-8 before the Tide offense came to life scoring their first points at the 4:48 mark on a bucket by Lady Tide Katie Wriglesworth.
The Curwensville defense threw a blanket around Clearfield’s leading scorer, 6’3” sophomore center Dakota Farmery, who came into the contest averaging 17.3 points per game, in the first half. Farmery had just two points at the half thanks to a collapsing defense by the Lady Tide.
The second half was different for Farmery and her Lady Bison teammates. Really different.
After Peters picked up her fourth foul with 5:30 still to play in the third stanza Farmery went to work, scoring six points as Clearfield outscored the Lady Tide once again 16-8 to take a commanding lead into the fourth quarter 36-22.
Kate Sheeder came off the bench for Clearfield in the third quarter and had two quick buckets that stretched the Bison lead to 30-16 with just over three minutes to play in the third.
Castagnolo talked about his bench as all four reserves scored, including five from Rachel Thompson, “Our bench came on strong and made a big difference in tonight’s game. I am very happy and proud how they responded.”
The best was yet to come for Clearfield in the final eight minutes as they put the game completely out of reach by outscoring their visitors 24-7 to win going away as Farmery scorched the nets for 12 points to finish with a game high of 20.
Clearfield’s inside game was the deciding factor that wasn’t lost on Castagnolo, “We’ll have mismatches inside most of the time and we have to take advantage of that by dumping the ball in there. And that’s what we did tonight.”
Peters, who fouled out with 7:07 left in the game, also had double figures with 10 points.
Savannah Strickland had 10 points to pace the Lady Tide (2-3) offense.
Curwensville head coach Rusty McCracken talked about the Bison height advantage, “We had to find a way to negate their height but unfortunately you can’t teach height.”
Then McCracken added, “When Clearfield started to stretch their lead in the second half we tried to go to man defense but they just stretched it even further.”
McCracken summed up the night with, “As always, both teams wanted this game badly, but we now have to get ready for Harmony on Monday night.”
In the junior varsity contest Clearfield won easily over the young Lady Tide 60-28 as the Bisons had four players in double figures. Ciara Marsh had 14, Katy Sheeder and Brittany Renaud each had 13 while Janelle Mumma dumped in 10. Jordyn McFadden had six for Curwensville.
Clearfield, 1-4, travels to Philipsburg on Tuesday in their next encounter to battle the Lady Mounties while the Lady Tide are at home on Monday in a Moshannon Valley League game against Harmony.
The junior varsity games start at 6 pm both nights with the varsity contests to immediately follow.
The Curwensville-Harmony game can be heard live on WOKW-FM, 102.9, on Monday night starting with the pre-game show at 7:15 pm.
See photos of the game: http://www.ladybisonsports.org/lbsbball122810.html
CURWENSVILLE – 29 Savannah Strickland 3 3-5 10, Taylor Bumbarger 1 0-3 2, Courtney Bachelier 0 0-0 0, Katrina Seaburn 2 2-2 6, Katie Wriglesworth 2 1-2 5, Rebecca Johnson 1 2-2 4, Paige McCracken 0 0-0 0, Brittany Carter 1 0-1 2, Kate Norris 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 10 8 -15 29.
CLEARFIELD – 60 Johanna Ryan 2 1-4 6, Kristen Butler 2 0-0 4, Lisa Ambuski 3 1-2 7, Breanna Peters 3 4-4 10, Dakota Farmery 8 4-4 20, Rachel Thompson 2 0-2 5, Brittany Renaud 1 0-0 2, Ciara Marsh 1 0-0 2, Katherine Sheeder 2 0-0 4, TOTALS – 24 10-16 60.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
CURWENSVILLE 8 6 8 7 29
CLEARFIELD 10 10 16 24 60
THREE-POINTERS: CURWENSVILLE – Strickland CLEARFIELD – Ryan and Thompson
OFFICIALS: Jerry Carnicella, Al Price and Rick Deickenson