Turns out that McCracken and that fear were well founded as the Lady Vikings ran and pressed themselves into a huge 24-2 margin after the first eight minutes of play in the season opener for Curwensville. After the first frame, the Lady Tide outscored Glendale the rest of the way by a slim 34-30 margin to set the final at a respectable 54-36
The Lady Tide actually had the game knotted at 2-2 before the Lady Vikings went on a 22-0 run to end the first frame. The huge run was mostly due to a very effective full court press employed by Glendale.
Kelli McGarvey, who led all scorers with 21 points on the night, had 13 in the first quarter to pace the Vikings.
McCracken spoke about the nightmare start, “My biggest fear coming into tonight’s game was that we would get off to a start slow, which we did. We just gave them too many easy baskets off of their press in that first quarter.”
Then the Tide mentor added, “ We did actually outscore Glendale over the next three quarters 34-30 so I was somewhat pleased with our effort and fight over the final twenty four minutes.”
Curwensville had it’s best eight minutes of play in the second stanza by outscoring their visitors 17-10 but the damage had already been inflicted by the disastrous start.
Helping McGarvey with the Glendale offense was Caitlyn Kimberly with 12 and Marrisa Grega with nine tallies.
Curwensville’s scoring had Katrina Seaburn with nine points and Savannah Strickland and Tiara Bumbarger each hitting for seven.
McCracken does hope however that his squad can build off of the final three quarters, “Hopefully we can take the good quarters and improve on them. We just need to get rid of the slow start and come out ready to play.”
The Lady Tide and the Lady Vikings combined for a total of 45 free throws on the evening.
The Lady Tide junior varsity was successful their first night out, beating the Lady Vikings 39-14.
Curwensville, 0-1, travels to Brockway on Tuesday to face the Lady Rovers in a game that will be broadcast on WOKW-FM, 102.9, starting with the pre-game show at 7:15 pm. The JV contest will start at 6 pm.
GLENDALE – 54
Cassie Sprangle 1 0-1 2, Kelli McGarvey 8 5-12 21, Sam Barnhart 0 0-0 0, Kate Matthews 2 2-4 6, Marissa Grega 3 3-4 9, Caityln Kimberly 5 2-5 12, Cassidy Noel 1 0-0 2, Paige Potter 0 0-0 0, Ashley Reed 0 0-1 0, Autumn, Katishen 0 0-0 0, Courtney McMurry 0 0-0 0, Kristal Peterson 1 0-0 2, Angel Ross 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 21 12-26 54
CURWENSVILLE – 36
Heather Thorp 0 0-0 0, Savannah Strickland 3 0-0 7, Tierra Shope 1 0-0 2, Rebecca Johnson 1 0-0 2, Megan McGarry 1 1-2 3, Ciara Strickland 2 2-4 6, Tiara Bumbarger 1 5-11 7, Katrina Seaburn 4 1-2 9, Kealy Wassil 0 0-0 0, Tiffany Carter 0 0-0 0, Kaitlyn Sass 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 13 9-19 36
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
GLENDALE 24 10 13 7 54
CURWENSVILLE 2 17 8 9 36
THREE-POINTERS – S. Strickland
OFFICIALS: Bill Zupich and Rich Gormont