Johnsonburg Dumps Lady Tide, 74-35

CURWENSVILLE – It was smooth sailing Friday evening for the Ramettes of Johnsonburg in handily dumping Curwensville, 74-35, on the Lady Tide’s home floor.

Johnsonburg, who improved to 13-5 overall, had four girls, all starters, score in double figures in a game that hit the mercy rule with 1:40 remaining in the third quarter.

Curwensville is now 6-8 on the 2012-13 campaign and played without starter and senior Katrina Seaburn,  who is nursing an injury.  Seaburn is averaging 10.2 points per game and her status for the Lady Tide’s game Saturday at DuBois Central Catholic is unknown.

The Ramettes started out with a 22-7 first quarter edge thanks to runs of 6-0 and 8-0 that left no doubt that they came ready to play.  Senior guard Rhianon Fowler had eight points in the opening act by hitting on four straight buckets midway in the first.

Curwensville did not fair any better in the second frame, as it was outscored 19-5 to go into intermission down 41-12.

At the end of the first 16 minutes the Ramettes had two girls in double figures, Brittany Watts with 12 and Fowler with 11.

It appeared that the mission for Johnsonburg was to get the mercy rule started as soon as possible.  And that is exactly what the Ramettes accomplished when Mary Kate McAlee hit for two with 1:40 left in the third period to give her squad a forty point bulge, 58-18.  Hence the mercy rule.

Watts ended the night with 19 to lead Johnsonburg while Fowler had 13, followed by Kassa Kojancic with 12 and Chelsea Benson adding 11.

Curwensville was paced by senior Rebecca Johnson with 17 and sophomore Ciara Strickland with 12.

Lady Tide head coach, Rusty McCracken, saw a positive note at the end, “Well, I was happy to see we finished positive in being aggressive there at the end.  But I told the girls that we need to be more aggressive at the start of the game, when it is still nothing-nothing.”

McCracken then added some comments about Johnsonburg, “This (Johnsonburg) is a  good team.  They find each other on the court and are very unselfish.  They’re just a very well-rounded squad, but I am a bit surprised that they have been in a lot of close ballgames.”

Curwensville, thanks to a few make-ups, has a mountain to climb over the next 13 days as it is scheduled to play eight games in that time period.  McCracken spoke about the task at hand, saying, “We just have to tough it out because we are still looking for playoff games.  We are still in the hunt for the AML (Allegany Mountain League) south title, so we need to stay focused and positive.”

Johnsonburg also easily won the junior varsity game, 55-15, over the Lady Tide.

As mentioned earlier,the Lady Tide are back in action Saturday for a make-up game at DuBois Central Catholic with the JV battle starting at 4 pm and the varsity game tipping off immediately after.  The Lady Cardinals defeated the Tide a few weeks ago, in Curwensville, 55-49.

JOHNSONBURG —  74

Rhianon Fowler 6 0-0 13,  Chelsea Benson 5 0-0 11,  Kassa Kojancic 6 0-0 12,  Brittany Watts 8 3-3 19, Kathern Polaski 2 0-0 4,  Mary Kate McAlee 3 0-0 6,  McKenna Rowels 2 0-0 4,  Ashley Imbrogno 2 0-0 5,  Taylor Wolfe 0 0-0 0,  Brianna Cardoni 0 0-0 0, TOTALS  –   34   3-3   74.

CURWENSVILLE —  35

Heather Thorp 0 0-0 0,  Rebecca Johnson 6 2-4 17,   Ciara Strickland 6 0-0 12,  Tiffany Carter 2 0-0 4,   Tierra Shope 1 0-4 2,  Abby Dugo 0 0-0 0,  Kealy Wassil 0 0-0 0, TOTALS  –   15   2-8   35.

SCORE BY QUARTERS:

JOHNSONBURG 22 19 21 12 74

CURWENSVILLE 7   5   6

THREE-POINTERS:  JOHNSONBURG –  3   Fowler, Benson, Imbrogno     CURWENSVILLE – 3   Johnson 3

OFFICIALS:  Rob Murphy,  Bill Overly

Lady Tide Scoreboard: