CURWENSVILLE — The Curwensville Lady Tide girls basketball team took the lead early in its home game Monday night against Glendale, maintaining margins from 14 to three, and prevailed to win 46-39 in Moshannon Valley League action.
The first meeting this year between the Lady Vikings and Lady Tide ended with Glendale coming out on top, 50-47, after the teams were knotted at 38-38 after three periods.
Lady Tide head coach Rusty McCracken afterwards said, “Defensively we played really well tonight, helping each other out the entire game. And it was a rough game, both teams played extremely hard.”
After falling behind 4-2, the Lady Tide went on a 9-0 run to jump out in front of the Lady Vikings 11-4, and a bucket by sophomore Ciara Strickland with just two seconds left in the first quarter gave Curwensville a 13-7 margin going into the second.
And the second quarter was even better for the home team, as Curwensville started out on an 8-0 run that led to a 24-10 intermission bulge.
Glendale’s Katelyn Matthews put the Lady Vikings on her shoulders in the second 16 minutes, as the senior dumped in 21 second half points, 13 in the third and eight more in the fourth, to keep her team in the hunt for the season sweep.
Matthews hit two free throws with 57 seconds left in the third eight minutes to drop the Tide lead to just five, 30-25.
However, Lady Tide senior Katrina Seaburn answered with two free throws near the end of the third to push the lead to seven, 32-25, and having Curwensville eight minutes away from a home court victory.
Glendale cut the lead to five again at the start of the fourth period, 32-27, on a basket by Matthews, but later in the final frame, with under five minutes left to play, Seaburn scored giving the Tide a double-digit lead again at 40-29.
The Lady Vikings, on this night, were not going away without putting up a fuss.
Trailing 42-33 with just 2:47 remaining, Glendale scored six straight points on baskets by Cassidy Noel and Ashley Reed followed by two free throws from Matthews to cut the Lady Tide margin to only three, 42-39, with 59 ticks left on the Patton Hall scoreboard.
An immediate Glendale foul sent Strickland to the line were the Tide guard calmly drained both free throws with 56 seconds left in the battle.
But a Lady Tide steal and a break-away basket with only 24 seconds left by Curwensville sophomore Heather Thorp sealed the win for the Lady Tide.
Strickland lead the Tide with 11 and Rebecca Johnson added 10 with Katrina Seaburn chipping in for nine.
It was all Matthews for Glendale, hitting for a game high 24 and going nine of 10 from the charity stripe.
The loss drops the Lady Vikings to 7-12 on the season.
In the junior varsity contest Glendale defeated the Lady Tide, 43-41.
Curwensville, now 7-9, makes the long journey to Sheffield on Tuesday to play the Lady Wolverines with a 6 pm tip-off for JV action. The varsity game starts immediately following the junior varsity battle.
The Lady Tide will also play Thursday at Brockway and home Friday versus Kane, and McCracken offered this about the tough week that lies ahead, “We have a little more at stake each night, so the girls need to be ready to play. We won eight games last year and we still have work to do because we want to come out better than last season.”
GLENDALE — 39
Courtney McMurray 2 0-0 4, Katelyn Matthews 7 9-10 24, Kristal Peterson 0 0-0 0, Caitlin Kimberly 2 0-1 4, Cassidy Noel 2 0-0 4, Ashley Reed 1 1-4 3, Katlynn Kutruff 0 0-0 0, Shannon Ricketts 0 0-0 0, Megan McMillen 0 0-0 0, Kiana Johnston 0 0-0 0, Brittany Witherow 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 14 10-15 39.
CURWENSVILLE — 46
Heather Thorp 3 0-1 6, Rebecca Johnson 5 0-0 10, Ciara Strickland 4 2-2 11, Katrina Seaburn 2 5-8 9, Tiffany Carter 2 0-0 4, Tierra Shope 2 2-2 6, TOTALS – 18 9-13 46.
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
GLENDALE 7 3 15 14 39
CURWENSVILLE 13 11 8 14 46
THREE-POINTERS: GLENDALE – 1 Matthews CURWENSVILLE – 1 Strickland
OFFICIALS: Bill Zupich, Barry Abbott
Lady Tide Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/10 | MO VALLEY | 52 – 16 | 1 – 0 |
| 12/11 | BROCKWAY | 57 – 32 | 2 – 0 |
| 12/14 | @ Ridgway | 70 – 28 | 3 – 0 |
| 12/19 | HARMONY | 60 – 15 | 4 – 0 |
| 12/21 | @ Kane | ppd. | 4 – 0 |
| 12/27 | @ Clearfield | 52 – 60 | 4 – 1 |
| 01/02 | @ Kane | 31 – 59 | 4 – 2 |
| 01/04 | DUBOIS CENTRAL | 49 – 55 | 4 – 3 |
| 01/08 | @ Johnsonburg | 33 – 48 | 4 – 4 |
| 01/10 | @ Harmony | 66 – 28 | 5 – 4 |
| 01/16 | @ Elk County | 38 – 53 | 5 – 5 |
| 01/18 | WEST BRANCH | 30 – 51 | 5 – 6 |
| 01/21 | @ Glendale | 47 – 50 | 5 – 7 |
| 01/22 | RIDGWAY | 58 – 29 | 6 – 7 |
| 01/25 | @ Brockway | ppd. | 6 – 7 |
| 01/28 | @ DuBois Central | ppd. | 6 – 7 |
| 02/01 | JOHNSONBURG | 35 – 74 | 6 – 8 |
| 02/02 | @ DuBois Central | 34 – 37 | 6 – 9 |
| 02/04 | GLENDALE | 46 – 39 | 7 – 9 |
| 02/05 | @ Sheffield | ||
| 02/07 | @ Brockway | ||
| 02/08 | KANE | ||
| 02/11 | @ Mo Valley | ||
| 02/13 | @ West Branch | ||
| 02/14 | CLEARFIELD |