In the end, however, it was Clearfield prevailing over their arch-rivals 48-26 to earn their third win on the nearly finished season and snap an eight game losing streak. The Lady Bisons also defeated the Lady Tide back on December 28 at Clearfield, 60-29.
The Tide had a rough early going offensively as on their first seven possessions they turned the ball over to Clearfield without ever taking a shot. With 4:09 to go in the first period sophomore Katrina Seaburn took the first shot for her squad, which also ended up being the Tide’s first points of the contest.
Without ever trailing in the battle the Lady Bisons took a 10-5 first period margin as Breanna Peters scored four points to fuel the Clearfield early offensive effort.
Curwensville head coach Rusty McCracken started five seniors on “Senior Night” at Patton Hall and he talked about the early part of the game, “I thought the five seniors did a good job defensively at the start of the game to keep it close. We just had trouble getting the offense untracked.”
The five seniors playing their final game at home were Taylor Bumbarger, Paige McCracken Courtney Bachelier, Brittany Carter and Katie Wriglesworth. A sixth senior, Kate Norris, has been out since early January with an illness and the Lady Tide honored Norris by hanging her number 42 jersey over the bleachers on their bench.
Clearfield jumped out to its biggest lead of the first half, 23-10, on a three-pointer by their lone senior, Johanna Ryan, with just 50 seconds remaining until the intermission.
With a 25-14 lead to start the final sixteen minutes Clearfield came out and went on a 6-0 run to bulldoze ahead 31-14 on a bucket by Rachel Thompson.
Savannah Strickland hit a three-pointer for the Lady Tide with 5:16 left in the third period to break the Bison run but it was a little too late as Curwensville found themselves down 36-24 after the first three periods were completed.
It was all Clearfield in the fourth period as they put some distance between them and the Tide by winning the final eight minutes 12-2 in a game that had great offensive balance for the winners.
Breanna Peters led Clearfield with 10 points followed by Ryan and Thompson each having nine while Kristen Butler and Lisa Ambuski each chipped in with eight points.
Clearfield head coach Joey Castagnolo spoke of the balance on offense, “We had very nice scoring balance with our starters tonight. That is something we always strive for. And tonight we just played smart basketball.”
The Tide were paced on the evening by Seaburn with 10, scoring seven in the second half.
Clearfield was 11 of 17 from the free throw line while Curwensville was just 3 of 13.
McCracken talked about his squad and, with one game left, briefly spoke about next year, “This group of girls has worked hard all year long and I am going to miss the seniors very much. We should be able to do some things next year with the players that we have coming back.”
Castagnolo also mentioned hard work, “These ten, eleven kids I have, worked and worked very hard all year long and tonight it paid off with one of our better games of the season.”
The junior varsity game was won by Clearfield over the Lady Tide, 44-20. Kate Sheeder had 14 and Johanna Ryan 12 for the Lady Bisons, now 13-5 on the year. Curwensville had Kaitlynn Sass score five as they fell to 8-13.
Curwensville, 4-17, will finish the season at West Branch on Wednesday night. The Lady Warriors beat the Lady Tide in January, 44-36. JV action starts at 6 pm with the varsity to immediately follow.
The Lady Bisons, 3-18, take the long road trip to Indian Valley on Wednesday for their season finale. The varsity game will follow the junior varsity battle which begins at 6 pm.
See photos of the game here: http://www.ladybisonsports.org/lbsbball021411.html
CLEARFIELD – 48
Johanna Ryan 4 0-0 9, Kristen Butler 4 0-0 8, Lisa Ambuski 3 2-3 8, Rachel Thompson 4 1-1 9, Breanna Peters 2 6-8 10, Brittany Renaud 0 2-2 2, Kate Sheeder 1 0-1 2, Ciara Marsh 0 0-2 0, Janelle Mumma 0 0-0 0, Brianna Spencer 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 18 11-17 48.
CURWENSVILLE – 26
Paige McCracken 0 0-0 0, Taylor Bumbarger 2 1-2 5, Courtney Bachelier 0 0-0 0, Brittany Carter 1 0-0 2, Kate Wriglesworth 0 0-2 0, Savannah Strickland 2 0-1 5, Rebecca Johnson 1 0-0 2, Kaitlynn Sass 0 0-0 0, Katrina Seaburn 4 2-6 10, Kealy Wassil 1 0-2 2, Megan McGarry 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 11 3-13 26.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
CLEARFIELD 10 15 11 12 48
CURWENSVILLE 5 9 10 2 26
THREE-POINTERS: CLEARFIELD – 1 Ryan CURWENSVILLE – 1 Strickland
OFFICIALS: Chris Sherkel, Bill Zupich, Rich Gormont