HYDE – Two high school girls basketball teams each seeking to end early season losing streaks battled at Clearfield Area High School Tuesday night, with the Clearfield Lady Bison coming up with a thrilling double overtime victory over the visiting Bellefonte Lady Raiders, 49-47.
Junior Emily Ryan, who led the Lady Bison with 19 points, hit two free throws with just six seconds left in the second overtime to seal the victory.
Lady Bison head coach Joe Castagnolo was glad to see the three game losing streak end and appreciated the play of both squads, “That was a great girls basketball game. Both teams played their hearts out. It came down to free throw shooting and we were able to hit ours to get the win.”
Each team had mini-runs in the first eight minutes with Clearfield putting up a 6-0 run while the Lady Raiders ended the first period on a 7-0 streak that gave them a one point margin after one period, 11-10.
Clearfield would go into the intermission leading 18-15 after a low scoring second stanza by both the Bison and Raiders.
Clearfield outscored Bellefonte 8-4 in the second period as Bison senior Emily Aveni had the last two field goals of the first half to give the home team a small cushion before the final 16 minutes.
The Lady Raiders made it exciting with a margin of 11-8 to take the third period and send the game into the final eight minutes of regulation all tied at 26-26.
The final frame was the most productive for both teams, each scoring 15 points which kept the game tied at 41-41 and sending the contest into overtime.
Ryan dominated the fourth period scoring by tickling the nets for 10 tallies while Bellefonte junior Jessica Book had seven. Book lead all scorers on the night with 20 points.
Only two points were scored in the first four minute overtime, two for each squad. Raisa Gregor had a two point field goal for Bellefonte while Aveni had the lone Clearfield field goal which kept the game knotted at 43-43 heading into overtime number two.
The Lady Bison took a 45-43 lead on a bucket by Rachel Glenny with 1:48 remaining in the OT period that was followed one minute later by a free throw by Ryan upping the Clearfield margin to three, 46-43 with only 48 ticks left on the clock.
Aveni then also followed with a free throw with 30 seconds remaining giving Clearfield a lead, 47-43, that looked somewhat insurmountable.
The key word here is somewhat, as Bellefonte had other ideas on this rainy, foggy night.
With 21 seconds left, Ally Steen of the Raiders hit her third three-pointer of the night, pulling the visitors from Bellefonte to within one at 47-46.
The Lady Raiders stopped the Bison on their next possession and promptly had Mara Tamminga draw a one and one foul situation from the charity stripe. Tamminga was good with the first toss but missed with the second that left the two teams tied once again, 47-47.
A mistake by the Bellefonte defense ended up sending Ryan to the free throw line with a needless foul and just six seconds remaining in overtime two.
And Ryan delivered, big time, hitting both foul shots that gave her team the two point lead and the win.
Castagnolo commented, “A great win for us as we played without one of our starters Maggie Sopic (injured). I told the girls they had to step up in Maggie’s absence; and to their credit they did.”
The Bison coach closed with, “The girls are starting to understand and learn their roles with what they need to do. We still need to work on a lot of aspects of the game and one being our rebounding on both ends of the floor.”
Clearfield is now 2-4 overall, and with the win is 1-2 in Mountain League play. Bellefonte dropped to 0-5 overall and 0-3 in the Mountain League.
The Clearfield junior varsity squad evened its record to 2-2 with a 23-17 win in the evening’s opening game. Brooke Cline had 10 points to pace the young Lady Bison team.
Clearfield travels to Tyrone for its next game on Friday night.
BELLEFONTE – 47
Raisa Gregor 2 1-2 5, Marissa Moriarta 1 0-0 2, Ally Steen 5 0-2 13, Jess Book 7 4-5 20, Lexi Wetzler 1 0-2 2, Mara Tamminga 1 1-2 3, Lea McCartney 1 0-0 2, Lauren Young 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 18 6-13 47.
CLEARFIELD – 49
Emily Ryan 7 5-9 19, Rachel Glenny 2 1-4 5, Mary Ishman 2 6-6 10, Emily Aveni 5 1-4 11, Margo Castagnolo 1 0-0 2, Tessa Waring 0 0-0 0, Janessa Riddell 0 0-0 0, Samantha Rockmore 1 0-0 2, Ally Lindstrom 0 0-0 0, Brooke Cline 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 18 13-23 49.
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
BELLEFONTE 11 4 11 15 2 4 47
CLEARFIELD 10 8 8 15 2 6 49
THREE-POINTERS: Steen 3, Book 2
OFFICIALS: Ken Knepp, George Schneider, Bud Brennen
Lady Bison Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| @ Brookville Tip-off Tourney | |||
| 12/05 | vs. Northern Clarion | 25 – 43 | 0 – 1 |
| 12/06 | Clarion-Limestone | 63 – 40 | 1 – 1 |
| 12/10 | @ Central | 38 – 57 | 1 – 2 |
| 12/12 | HUNTINGDON | 25 – 37 | 1 – 3 |
| 12/15 | PUNXSUTAWNEY | 43 – 57 | 1 – 4 |
| 12/16 | BELLEFONTE | 49-47 2ot | 2 – 4 |
| 12/19 | @ Tyrone | ||
| 12/22 | @ Brookville | ||
| 12/29 | CURWENSVILLE | ||
| 01/05 | @ Punxsutawney | ||
| 01/07 | BALD EAGLE AREA | ||
| 01/09 | @ Penns Valley | ||
| 01/13 | PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA | ||
| 01/16 | ST. MARYS | ||
| 01/21 | CENTRAL | ||
| 01/23 | @ Huntingdon | ||
| 01/27 | @ Bellefonte | ||
| 01/30 | TYRONE | ||
| 02/04 | @ Bald Eagle Area | ||
| 02/06 | PENNS VALLEY | ||
| 02/10 | @ Philipsburg-Osceola | ||
| 02/13 | @ Curwensville |