CURWENSVILLE – Too many missed shots and too many turnovers doomed the Curwensville Area High School girls basketball team against unbeaten West Branch in Moshannon Valley League action Tuesday night.
The veteran Lady Warriors used full-court pressure to build a 20-point lead early in the second quarter, withstood a Lady Tide comeback that halved the margin midway into the third period and finished strong with their fifth win, 65-32, on the new Patton Hall hardwood.
West Branch, off to a 3-0 start in the MVL, got at least seven points from each of its starters plus nine points from reserve Melissa McCracken. Janene Couteret led the way with a game-high 16 points, and MeLesha Ahlberg added 10.
The Strickland sisters paced Curwensville, freshman Ciara scoring 10 points and senior Savannah contributing nine.
However, only 14 of the Lady Tide’s 47 shots dropped through the rims, a 29.8-percent showing that resulted in its lowest scoring output of the season.
“That’s not gonna win a whole lot of games,” coach Rusty McCracken said after the Lady Tide tumbled to 1-4 with its second MVL setback. “Again, it’s a matter of putting the ball in the basket. I think we had quality shots. We just didn’t finish off our offense.”
The Lady Tide, which has failed to crack double figures in 13 of 20 quarters, got off to another slow start with only field goals by Megan McGarry and Becca Johnson in the first period.
Curwensville got off just eight shots and was guilty of 10 of its 33 turnovers, primarily because of the effective West Branch press that resulted in several steals or bad passes as well as easy scoring chances for the visitors.
McCracken came off the bench to cash feeds from Christie Sabol and Ahlberg and tack on two free throws to cap a 12-2 run in the last four minutes that gave the Lady Warriors a 19-5 lead at the first rest stop.
They expanded that to 27-7 in the second period before the Lady Tide came to life.
Savannah Strickland ignited the rally with a three-pointer from the top of the key.
Katrina Seaburn, who had 10 of Curwensville’s 27 rebounds, was the beneficiary of a Ciara Strickland assist and then fed Savannah Strickland for two. Later, her putback set the halftime score at 31-18.
Neither team could get rolling in the third quarter, and the Lady Tide was able to cut its deficit to 10 points, 31-21, on Savannah Strickland’s difficult turning jumper in the lane and Tierra Shope’s free throw at the 5:12 mark.
But the Lady Tide got no closer.
Couteret drove past Lady Tide defenders twice to bank in shots and added two free throws as the Lady Warriors opened the gap to 43-27 going to the final quarter.
Then, they reeled off 18 consecutive points when the Lady Tide failed to score on 17 possessions before Ciara Strickland nailed a three with 1:43 remaining.
“We started getting frustrated, and some of our passing got a little sloppy towards the end,” McCracken said.
Curwensville has yet to post double figures in any fourth quarter, and McCracken was unable to pinpoint the problem.
He said, “I don’t know whether we’re getting tired at the end of games or whether we’re just losing our focus, or we don’t know how to win yet, but we don’t finish games.”
McCracken did see some encouraging signs.
“I thought we did a good job of pressuring them early,” he said. We did come up with turnovers, but, again, we just didn‘t score.
“Savannah passed the ball pretty well, and that‘s something we‘ve been doing better the last couple games. We‘ve been finding the open players a little bit better and getting nice backdoor cuts and good shots out of that.
“Ciara‘s coming on every game. She‘s getting more confident on the varsity level, and she does good things.”
West Branch shot 43 percent (25-for-58) from the floor and hauled in 34 rebounds.
Curwensville will host Kane Wednesday and visit DuBois Central Catholic Friday in Allegheny Mountain League South Division games.
The West Branch jayvees set up the evening’s sweep with a 31-23 win behind 10-point efforts by Missy Croyle and Nichole Miller. Abby Dugo’s seven points were high for Curwensville.
WEST BRANCH — 65
Mindy Kolesar 3 2-2 8, MeKayla Ahlberg 3 2-5 8, MeLesha Ahlberg 4 2-2 11, Janene Couteret 6 4-8 16, Brianne Nye 3 0-0 7, Christie Sabol 0 0-0 0, Madison McCracken 3 3-4 9, Nichole Miller 2 0-0 4, Missy Croyle 0 0-0 0, Taylor Kolesar 1 0-0 2, Maria Handel 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 25 13-21 65.
CURWENSVILLE — 32
Savannah Strickland 4 0-0 9, Tierra Shope 0 1-4 1, Megan McGarry 1 0-0 2, Ciara Strickland 4 1-2 10, Katrina Seaburn 3 0-2 6, Becca Johnson 1 0-0 2, Tiara Bumbarger 0 0-1 0, Kealy Wassil 0 0-0 0, Tiffany Carter 0 0-0 0, Heather Thorp 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 14 2-9 32.
Three-Point Field Goals – West Branch 2 (MeL. Ahlberg, Nye); Curwensville 2 (S. Strickland, C. Strickland).
SCORE BY QUARTERS
West Branch 19 12 12 22 – 65
Curwensville 5 13 9 5 – 32
Officials – Rob Murphy and Bill Zupich.
