Then came the dreaded full court press and just like that the Lady Crusaders got down to business, outscoring the Tide 32-19 in the second half.
Midway through the second quarter Curwensville trailed by only one point, 14-13, before ECC went on a 15-1 run that spanned the middle two periods before Katrina Seaburn hit a bucket with 4:44 left in the third leaving the Lady Crusaders out in front 29-16.
Elk County Catholic would have its best eight minutes in the third quarter as they topped the Lady Tide 20-6 to lead comfortably, 41-20, with only the final eight minutes remaining.
Two Lady Crusaders fueled the third period explosion as Karly Carnovale had nine points with Abby Petrosky hitting for eight.
Curwensville coach Rusty McCracken was very upbeat about his team afterwards saying, “I thought that everybody played well, including the four freshmen. I am very proud of the way we played throughout the entire game. And even though we came up short I believe it was our best game of the year regardless of the final score.”
McCracken also took time to address the trouble his squad had with the press employed by Elk County Catholic, “We still continue to have a lot of problems breaking the press and tonight was no different. If we just take care of the ball this is a completely different ballgame. And once again the third quarter was our Achilles heel.”
Petrosky had 16 points to lead Elk County Catholic with Carnovale chipping in with 13 under head coach Ken Pistner. Now in his ninth season at the helm Pistner has a sparkling record of 181 wins against just 49 defeats.
Seaburn, a Curwensville sophomore, had her best game of the season scoring 15 points with nine coming in the final period. Savannah Strickland helped the Lady Tide cause with nine.
The Lady Crusaders improved to 7-4 on the season while the Lady Tide dropped to 2-9.
Elk County Catholic was also victorious in the junior varsity contest beating Curwensville 38-19 as the young Lady Tide fell to 5-6 on the year.
NOTE: The Lady Tide will host West Branch on Friday night at Curwensville with the JV game beginning at 6 pm. It will be “Think Pink Night” at Patton Hall and all cancer survivors will be recognized at halftime of the varsity game. All proceeds gained through various fund raisers will be donated to local area cancer patient facilities.
Listen to WOKW-FM, 102.9, for all the live action of the Curwensville-West Branch game Friday night with the pre-game show starting at 7:15 pm.
CURWENSVILLE – 34
Savannah Strickland 4 0-0 9, Rebecca Johnson 1 0-0 2, Courtney Bachelier 0 0-0 0, Katrina Seaburn 5 5-6 15, Katie Wriglesworth 1 0-0 2, Taylor Bumbarger 2 0-0 4, Brittany Carter 0 0-0 0, Cheyenne Pentz 0 0-0 0, Kaitlynn Sass 0 0-0 0, Tierra Shope 0 1-4 1, Megan McGarry 0 0-0 0, Kealy Wassil 0 0-0 0, Tiara Bumbarger 0 1-2 1, TOTALS – 13 7-12 34.
ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC – 53
Abby Petrosky 6 4-6 16, Lexi Meholic 2 1-2 5, Ellie Petrosky 0 0-0 0, Emily Gregory 1 0-0 2, Karly Carnovale 5 2-2 13, Maggie Sorg 1 0-0 2, Taylor DaCanal 1 0-0 2, Morgan Onink 0 0-0 0, Michelle Imbrogno 0 0-1 0, Anna Hawkins 2 3-4 7, Kristy Hanes 3 0-0 6, Helen Danz 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 21 10-15 53.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
CURWENSVILLE 6 8 6 13 34
ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 10 11 20 12 53
THREE-POINTERS: CURWENSVILLE – 1 Strickland ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC – 1 Carnovale
OFFICIALS: Ken Knepp, Bud Brennen, Bob Sekelsky