Monday night the Lady Bisons faced the Lady Tide on Clearfield’s hardwood and came away with a 57-32 victory on Senior Night to end their regular season at 15-7.
The Lady Bisons beat the Lady Tide in the first meeting of the season on December 28 at Curwensville by a score of 57-38.
It didn’t look like either team would break 20 points on the night as turnover after turnover plagued both teams until 2:34 was left in the first quarter when Lisa Ambuski scored the game’s first points giving Clearfield a 2-0 lead. A lead they would never relinquish throughout the course of the game.
With the Lady Bisons out in front 6-0 Lady Tide freshman Ciara Strickland hit a three-pointer cutting the Clearfield margin in half, 6-3.
Clearfield would end the first quarter on a 5-0 run to stretch it’s edge to 11-3 after the first eight minutes. Better things were minutes away for the Lady Bisons.
The Lady Tide quickly got back into the game at 11-7 to start the second period on baskets by Savannah Strickland and Rebecca Johnson.
Then the switch on the Tide offense was turned off, but for the Lady Bisons, fireworks were on their way.
With the Clearfield girls holding on to that 11-7 edge they would go on a 20-0 run to end the second quarter and the first half out in front 31-7. Ambuski would score seven and teammate Rachel Thompson would add six to fuel the fireworks in that game changing stretch.
Lady Bison head coach Joey Castagnolo summed up the explosion, “We really passed the ball around well tonight. That was a big key for us, to get the seniors involved because these girls were very emotional on Senior Night.”
Rusty McCracken, Lady Tide head coach, said afterwards, “We got down after they made some easy lay-ups. We just weren’t getting back on defense for some reason and it cost us.”
Bison junior Dakota Farmery hit two free throws to begin the second half, which pushed Clearfield’s run to 22-0 and it’s margin to 33-7.
Curwensville would finally stop the monster run of the Bisons on a bucket from Rebecca Johnson with exactly seven minutes remaining in the third period. But, in reality, the damage was already done.
The Lady Tide would play a much better second half offensively, but Clearfield didn’t actually slow down either.
At times in the third period the Bisons would stretch the margin between themselves and the Tide to over 30 points, but Curwensville would find a way to cut slightly into the big Bison lead. The cut just never was big enough and the Lady Bisons swept the two-game season series.
Katrina Seaburn of Curwensville played another strong game for her squad, leading the way with 12 points, of which eight came in the third period. Johnson chipped in with 10.
Clearfield had three ladies in double figures with Thompson at 15, Ambuski with 12 and Breanna Peters with 10.
Castagnolo closed with, “This team (Clearfield) was 3-19 last year and to be at this time 15-7 is unbelievable and a credit to their hard work.”
McCracken ended with some positive thoughts about his team also, “The girls didn’t quit. They did come back a little bit tonight. They do good things in spurts and we just need to extend those periods. I was pleased that we got points from different people tonight. That is a positive.”
Clearfield also won the junior varsity game as the Lady Bisons beat the Lady Tide 38-24. Emily Aveni led Clearfield with 12 points while Megan McGarry had nine for Curwensville. The Bison JV’s ended the season with a 10-11 record under coach Jerry Stewart.
The Lady Bisons now await the start of the District 9 AAA playoffs in which they should have a home game against either Punxsutawney or St. Marys.
Clearfield split with Punxsutawney this season. The Lady Bisons beat the Lady Chucks at home, 60-56, and lost on Punxsy’s home court 68-55.
St. Marys defeated Clearfield on the Lady Bisons home floor in the only game between the two schools, 55-51.
Curwensville, now 7-14, will finish out it’s season on Wednesday at home against Moshannon Valley. The junior varsity game will start at 6 pm with the varsity contest to immediately follow.
Last week the Lady Tide defeated the Lady Damsels at Moshannon Valley High School, 42-37.
Listen to Lady Tide basketball on Wednesday on WOKW-FM, 102.9, with the pre-game starting at 7:15 pm.
See photos of the game here: http://www.ladybisonsports.org/lbsbball021312.html
CURWENSVILLE – 32
Savannah Strickland 1 0-0 2, Rebecca Johnson 5 0-0 10, Ciara Strickland 1 1-2 4, Katrina Seaburn 6 0-0 12, Kealy Wassil 1 2-2 4, Heather Thorp 0 0-0 0, Tiffany Carter 0 0-0 0, Lindsey Hullihen 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 14 3-4 32.
CLEARFIELD – 57
Kristen Butler 4 0-0 8, Lisa Ambuski 5 0-0 12, Rachel Thompson 7 0-0 15, Janelle Mumma 0 0-0 0, Katherine Sheeder 1 0-0 2, Dakota Farmery 3 2-2 8, Breanna Peters 4 2-4 10, Brittany Renaud 0 0-0 0, Tessa Munshower 1 0-0 2, TOTALS – 25 4-6 57.
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
CURWENSVILLE 3 4 15 10 32
CLEARFIELD 11 20 19 7 57
THREE-POINTERS: C. Strickland, Ambuski 2, Thompson
OFFICIALS: Ken Knepp, Bud Brennan, George Schneider
