CURWENSVILLE – Clearfield Area High School girls basketball coach Joey Castagnolo has always dubbed the Clearfield-Curwensville girls basketball game between the Christmas and New Years holidays, “The Holiday Classic.”
Friday night in Patton Hall at Curwensville High School, “The Holiday Classic” truly was a classic, as the Lady Tide took the Lady Bison into overtime before coming out with a thrilling 50-46 win before a fairly large crowd.
Curwensville head coach Rusty McCracken said afterwards, “It was such a great game, with both teams fighting down to the wire. And it was a good game for the fans to watch and enjoy themselves.”
The Lady Bison would end the first eight minutes on a 7-2 run to jump out 16-12 after one period was in the scorebook.
Brianna Spencer and Mary Ishman each had five points in the quarter for Clearfield.
Curwensville junior Ciara Strickland had eight of her game high 21 points in the opening frame.
Each squad would match one another with 10 second quarter points and at the half Clearfield still maintained a four point margin, 26-22.
After the intermission the Lady Tide outscored Clearfield 17-12 to go on top after three periods, 39-38.
The third quarter saw the lead change hands on each of the last seven field goals.
Both squads took the fourth quarter off offensively, with Clearfield showing a 4-3 edge. An edge that sent the battle into the four minute overtime tied at 42-42.
The game was sent into overtime when Curwensville senior Kealy Wassil hit the back end of two free throws with only 14.8 seconds left.
Clearfield jumped out to a 46-42 lead in the extra stanza on a free throw by Maggie Sopic and one by Spencer, which came off of a Curwensville technical foul. Sopic then followed up with a field goal, off of the technical, to give the Lady Bison the four point edge with 3:10 remaining. Unfortunately, those would be the final tallies of the night for Clearfield.
Curwensville would come back with two straight field goals, one by freshman Hannah Dixon and the other by Strickland to knot the game once again, this time at 46-46, with 1:51 left on the clock.
Strickland put the Lady Tide in front for good, 48-46, with a short jumper with only 20 seconds left.
Dixon iced the game for Curwensville, making both free throws in a double bonus situation, with only 1.3 ticks remaining.
McCracken closed with, “This was a win we obviously wanted and one that we needed. We matched up well with Clearfield tonight to win a real close game, And we wanted this game to go into the new year with some momentum.”
In junior varsity action, Clearfield defeated the young Lady Tide, 39-23. High scorer for the Bison was Ally Lindstrom with 10 points while Katie Evans had eight for Curwensville. .
The Lady Bison, 2-6, are home for a battle with Punxsutawney next Friday, with the JV game tipping off at 6 pm and the varsity to immediately follow.
Curwensville, 5-1, also returns to the hardwood next Friday, with a trip to DuBois to battle DuBois Central Catholic. The junior varsity contest begins at 6 pm followed by the varsity game.
CLEARFIELD – 46
Brianna Spencer 3 3-4 10, Emily Ryan 4 0-2 8, Emily Aveni 3 0-2 6, Maggie Sopic 3 1-2 7, Mary Ishman 2 1-2 5, Sarah Lash 0 0-0 0, Rachel Glenny 1 2-5 4, Sarah Aycock 3 0-1 6, Victoria Ireland 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 19 7-18 46.
CURWENSVILLE – 50
Heather Thorp 3 0-0 6, Tierra Shope 3 1-2 7, Ciara Strickland 9 1-5 21, Abby Dugo 1 0-1 3, Kealy Wassil 3 1-3 7, Hannah Dixon 2 2-2- 6, Shauna Guy 0 0-0 0 TOTALS 21 5-13 50
THREE-POINTERS: Spencer, Strickland 2, Dugo.
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
CLEARFIELD 16 10 12 4 4 46
CURWENSVILLE 12 10 17 3 8 50
OFFICIALS: Bill Zupich, Rich Gormont