With a little more than two seconds remaining in the battle, Tyrone’s Olivia Stever got free down low in the paint and hit the game winner on a four foot toss in as the clock struck all zeros.
To make matters worse the Lady Bison inside game took a crushing blow with 4:30 left in the final quarter when sophomore Dakota Farmery went down with a left ankle injury. Farmery had 15 points and a whole bunch of rebounds before being helped off the court, where she would not return.
Clearfield (2-13), who lost the first time around to Tyrone 63-36, used a strong first quarter by Farmery and Rachel Thompson to win the first eight minutes 18-14. Farmery dumped in six and Thompson scored five, one bucket was a trey, in the opening frame.
Tyrone cut the Lady Bison lead to three at the half by outscoring their hosts 11-10 in the second quarter to trail 28-25 at the intermission. Lady Eagle Alexis Brooks paced the offense in the first half with 11 points including three three-pointers.
The Lady Bisons took its biggest lead of the night early in the third period as a bucket by Farmery extended the margin to eight at 33-25.
Later in the third, Nicole Gripp of Tyrone, tied the back and forth game at 35-35 as the two squads would enter the final period all even at 43-43.
Sophomore Breanna Peters of the Bisons kept her squad in the game with 10 third quarter points on her way to a game high tie of 17 along with Gripp of the Lady Eagles.
The lead changed hands several times in the fourth quarter before Stever performed her heroics.
Clearfield head coach Joey Castagnolo said after the game, “The kids played a whale of a ballgame for us. We had runs of seven and eight points a few times; but give Tyrone credit they kept battling back.”
Then Castagnolo added, “Tyrone started to make some shots in the second half that they didn’t make in the first half that kept them in the game.”
Speaking about the injury to Farmery, Castagnolo commented, “I don’t know the extent of her (Farmery) injury but with or with out her we just need to suck it up and move forward.”
Rachel Thompson also had a big night for Clearfield as she netted double figures with 11 points.
The Lady Eagles had two other players beside Gripp with double digit nights as Brooks had 14 off of the bench, and Stever ended with 13. Of the 57 points scored by Tyrone, Gripp and Brooks had a total of thirty-one bench points.
Clearfield was eight for 10 from the free throw line while the Eagles ended the evening four of eight.
There was no junior varsity game.
The Lady Bisons are on the road Saturday at St. Marys to face the Lady Dutch with the JV game starting at 5 pm and the varsity contest to immediately follow. As of this writing the Flying Dutch are 14-1 on the 2010-11 season.
TYRONE – 57
Emily Brokenshire 0 0-0 0, Olivia Stever 6 1-2 13, Jordyn Swooger 3 2-2 9, Morgan Taylor 0 0-2 0, Alayna Hettinger 2 0-0 4, Nicole Gripp 8 0-0 17, Alexis Brooks 5 1-2 14, Lucy Rafferty 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 24 4-8 57.
CLEARFIELD – 55
Kristen Butler 2 0-0 4, Lisa Ambuski 3 0-0 6, Rachel Thompson 4 2-2 11, Breanna Peters 6 5-6 17, Dakota Farmery 7 1-2 15, Johanna Ryan 0 0-0 0, Brittany Renaud 0 0-0 0, Katherine Sheeder 1 0-0 2, TOTALS – 23 8-10 55.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
TYRONE 14 11 18 14 57
CLEARFIELD 18 10 15 12 55
THREE-POINTERS: TYRONE 5 Brooks 3, Swooger, Gripp CLEARFIELD 1 Thompson
OFFICIALS: Rich Rhoades, Chuck Pasternak, Emery Faith