Wrong!
Don’t tell that to the Curwensville Lady Tide girls basketball team as it turned the tables on the Lady Rovers of Brockway Friday night at Patton Hall in Curwensville with a thrilling 47-41 victory.
Lady Tide normal starters Savannah Strickland, a senior, and sophomore Tierra Shope missed the game due to illness so Curwensville head coach Rusty McCracken went to his bench to work some magic.
Whether it was magical or not the Lady Tide dug deep from the start of the game to the final buzzer.
Curwensville took an early 13-12 lead after one period of play thanks to seven points from freshman Ciara Strickland.
Brockway would take over the lead in the second frame and had its biggest lead of the night at 21-17 with three minutes and twenty seconds left in the first half. A half that would end 24-22 with the Lady Rovers out in front on “Think Pink” night on the Curwensville hardwood.
The Lady Tide had shown over the first 16 minutes that this was going to be a battle. The question was could the Curwensville girls maintain that intensity for another 16 minutes?
The answer? Easy. Yes they could and would.
Outscoring Brockway during the third period 14-10, the Tide took a two point advantage, 33-31, into the final eight minutes of action.
Trailing 29-26 Strickland nailed a three pointer to tie the game at 29 each and just ten seconds later, with 4:41 remaining in the third, Katrina Seaburn put a lay-up in to put the Lady Tide out in front 31-29.
Curwensville would have a five point margin, 40-35, at the 3:03 mark of the fourth quarter thanks to a steal and lay-up by freshman Heather Thorp.
Thorp came off of the bench and scored six key points in helping the Tide pick up win number five on the year against nine losses.
Leading the Lady Tide offense were Seaburn with 13, Strickland with 12 and Johnson scoring 11.
Seaburn not only was the scoring leader but also the rebound leader in an all-around effort not lost on McCracken, “Katrina (Seaburn) has been a rock for us all year long and tonight not only did she score; but she was great at both ends of the floor grabbing a lot of rebounds.”
Then McCracken said, “With two starters out, we turned to the bench and the girls really stepped up for this one. I couldn’t be more proud of the effort that these girls put forth tonight.”
Brockway, now also 5-9, was paced on offense by LeeAnn Crawford with 12 and Julie Vokes with 11.
The junior varsity game went to Brockway as they beat the Lady Tide by a score of 32-30.
The Lady Tide will play again on Monday at home against DuBois Central Catholic with JV action starting at 6 pm and the varsity to immediately follow.
The Lady Cardinals defeated the Lady Tide the first time around this year, 67-25.
BROCKWAY – 41
Ann Moyer 2 0-1 4, Sara Guilyard 2 3-7 7, Julie Vokes 6 1-2 11, LeeAnn Crawford 5 1-2 12, Savannah Brosky 2 0-0 4, Alexandra Wright 0 0-0 0, Laura Felczak 0 0-0 0, Julianna Esposito 0 1-2 1, TOTALS – 17 6-14 41.
CURWENSVILLE – 47
Rebecca Johnson 5 1-2 11, Ciara Strickland 5 0-0 12, Katrina Seaburn 4 5-6 13, Tiara Bumbarger 0 1-4 1, Kealy Wassil 1 0-2 2, Tiffany Carter 1 0-0 2, Heather Thorp 3 0-0 6, TOTALS – 19 7-14 47.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
BROCKWAY 12 12 7 10 41
CURWENSVILLE 13 9 11 14 47
THREE-POINTERS: Vokes, Crawford, Strickland 2
OFFICIALS: Bill Overly, Rob Murphy
Lady Tide Scoreboard:
