The home court win for Curwensville has them finishing the 2011-12 campaign with an 8-14 record while the Damsels end the year at 2-18.
The Lady Tide beat Moshannon Valley on Wednesday of last week on the Damsels floor, 42-37; so the rematch figured to be close also, and it was.
After the Lady Tide took an early 2-0 lead the Damsels went on a 5-0 run before the first eight minutes ended with both teams knotted at eight.
Curwensville went on a 13-0 run to start the second frame, which was fueled by a three pointer from Lady Tide freshman Ciara Strickland, giving the Tide a 21-8 lead.
Amanda Howe, a senior for Moshannon Valley, hit a three of her own to stop the Tide run, but Ciara Strickland knocked down two straight treys before the first half ended, giving Curwensville a comfortable 27-15 margin at the intermission.
Ciara Strickland had a monster second period for Curwensville as the freshman hit three treys to score a total of 12 points in the period ending with a game high 22 on the night.
The Lady Tide’s comfortable halftime lead shrunk to only six after three periods as the Damsels outscored Curwensville 13-7 to trail 34-28 going into the final eight minutes.
With six minutes left in the game, Laura Harris, a sophomore for the Damsels, banged in a three-pointer to cut the Tide lead to 36-33. Harris was far from being done, as Curwensville would find out.
Curwensville upped the lead to 38-33 on two free throws by Ciara Strickland but with 4:20 left Harris knocked down another three to bring the Damsels back to within three points at 40-37.
Harris would knot the game at 40-40 with another NBA length three-pointer with 2:36 left and suddenly the comfortable halftime lead for Curwensville was nothing but a memory.
Give the Lady Tide credit however, as they won the game at the free throw line in the final minutes of action.
Sophomore Kealy Wassil made one of two from the charity stripe to give Curwensville a 41-40 lead and with 1:40 left in the contest Rebecca Johnson hit two from the line and suddenly the Lady Tide were up by three at 43-40.
Thirty seconds later Savannah Strickland put in a lay-up for Curwensville giving her team a 45-40 margin with just 1:10 on the clock.
Harris would make one of two from the line for the Damsels but Katrina Seaburn would seal the win for Curwensville, making two free throws with thirty seconds remaining to set the final score at 47-41 in favor of the Lady Tide.
Curwensville was 12 of 19 from the free throw line and the Damsels were 11 of 26.
Harris paced the Damsels attack with 20 points which included four from beyond the arc.
Curwensville head coach Rusty McCracken spoke afterwards about the tough, physical game, “It was definitely a tough battle out there tonight. Both teams played very hard and both took some contact, but that is just part of the game. They spread out our defense at times but we survived that, however, and came away with the win.”
McCracken then talked about the eight wins his squad earned this season, “I hope that the eight wins we had means that we are making some progress. The girls are starting to play better and with some off season work they can improve even more.”
Curwensville also won the junior varsity game, beating the Lady Damsels by a score of 25-18 making it a sweep for the Golden Tide on Senior night at Patton Hall.
The lone senior playing her final game for the Tide was Savannah Strickland, and for the Damsels, also playing their last contest, were Ruthie Hutton, Brieanna Shawver and Howe.
MOSHANNON VALLEY – 41
Tayia Swoope 1 4-8 7, Ruthie Hutton 1 0-2 2, Brieanna Shawver 1 0-2 2, Amanda Howe 3 1-3 8, Laura Harris 5 6-9 20, Kelsey Kitko 1 0-2 2, Mikayla Shawver 0 0-0 0, Mackenzie Kitko 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 12 11-26 41.
CURWENSVILLE – 47
Savannah Strickland 3 0-0 6, Rebecca Johnson 2 3-4 7, Ciara Strickland 8 3-3 22, Katrina Seaburn 0 5-10 5, Kealy Wassil 1 1-2 3, Heather Thorp 0 0-0 0, Tiara Bumbarger 0 0-0 0, Tiffany Carter 2 0-0 4TOTALS – 16 12-19 47.
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
MOSHANNON VALLEY 8 7 13 13 41
CURWENSVILLE 8 19 7 13 47
THREE-POINTERS: Harris 4, Howe, Swoope, C. Strickland 3
OFFICIALS: Bill Zupich, Rich Gormont
Final Lady Tide Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/09 | GLENDALE | 36 – 54 | 0 – 1 |
| 12/13 | @ Brockway | 35 – 63 | 0 – 2 |
| 12/16 | RIDGWAY | 39 – 22 | 1 – 2 |
| 12/28 | CLEARFIELD | 38 – 57 | 1 – 3 |
| 01/03 | WEST BRANCH | 35 – 62 | 1 – 4 |
| 01/04 | KANE | 24 – 60 | 1 – 5 |
| 01/06 | @ DuBois Central | 25 – 67 | 1 – 6 |
| 01/09 | HARMONY | 56 – 18 | 2 – 6 |
| 01/10 | JOHNSONBURG | 22 – 61 | 2 – 7 |
| 01/13 | @ Glendale | ppd. | 2 – 7 |
| 01/18 | ELK CO. CATHOLIC | 25 – 57 | 2 – 8 |
| 01/20 | @ Harmony | 47 – 28 | 3 – 8 |
| 01/24 | @ Ridgway | 35 – 23 | 4 – 8 |
| 01/25 | @ Glendale | 32 – 50 | 4 – 9 |
| 01/27 | BROCKWAY | 47 – 41 | 5 – 9 |
| 01/30 | DUBOIS CENTRAL | 34 – 45 | 5 – 10 |
| 02/01 | @ West Branch | 28 – 70 | 5 – 11 |
| 02/03 | @ Johnsonburg | 31 – 54 | 5 – 12 |
| 02/07 | SHEFFIELD | 45 – 34 | 6 – 12 |
| 02/08 | @ Mo Valley | 42 – 37 | 7 – 12 |
| 02/10 | @ Kane | 29 – 72 | 7 – 13 |
| 02/13 | @ Clearfield | 32 – 57 | 7 – 14 |
| 02/15 | MO VALLEY | 47 – 41 | 8 – 14 |