HYDE – The annual Clearfield -Curwensville girls basketball game, dubbed the “Holiday Classic” by Lady Bison head coach Joey Castagnolo, was played Monday evening on Clearfield ’s home court. Afterwards the Lady Tide were the ones in a festive holiday mood after beating its rival Clearfield 66-40.
The Lady Bison defense had no answer for Lady Tide senior Ciara Strickland, who scorched the nets for 35 points, which included four three-pointers. Strickland had 13 first half points then turned it up a notch with 22 in the final 16 minutes.
Clearfield, to its credit, did play one of their better first halves in the opening two periods, trailing just 32-29 at the intermission.
In a back and forth first eight minutes, the Lady Bison tied the score at 16-16 with 10 seconds remaining as junior Emily Ryan hit a bucket to send the game all even into the second frame.
The Lady Tide took a 32-25 lead with 40 seconds left in the half on a 9-0 run before Clearfield scored two quick buckets to cut the margin to just three at the half, 32-29.
However, the second half was totally different for the Lady Bison as they were outscored 34-11.
In fact, the Lady Tide opened up the third period on an 11-0 run that pushed their lead to 43-29 before Clearfield’s Emily Aveni scored with 3:06 left in the third.
Strickland fueled that start to the second half run with nine straight points while the other two points came from sophomore Hannah Dixon.
Clearfield never could cut the lead to under 10 and were only able to manage one field goal (Ryan) in the entire final eight minutes.
Helping Strickland in the Lady Tide win were Christene Limbert with 12 and Dixon with 10.
Clearfield was paced by two juniors; Ryan with 15 and Rachel Glenny adding 11.
The Lady Bison hit on only four of 12 free throws, while Curwensville was four of seven from the line.
Lady Tide head coach Rusty McCracken said afterwards, “This is always a fun game to play in and it was really good to get the win after a long layoff (10 days). It was nice to see that all five starters contributed with points and of course with Ciara (Strickland) having such a great night it really helped.”
McCracken closed by saying, “I thought we rebounded very well tonight and Christene (Limbert) was everywhere grabbing rebounds. She did a very good job on the boards for us which is key in any victory.”
The junior varsity contest was actually no contest as Clearfield won 55-2, pushing the Lady Bison youngsters to 5-2 on the season. Scoring double digits for Clearfield was Brooke Cline with 19, Ally Lindstrom with 13 and Niki Chew adding 10.
Curwensville, now 4-1, will be home on Friday to play DuBois Central Catholic with JV action starting at 6 pm. The varsity battle can be heard on WOKW-FM, 102.9, with the pre-game show beginning at 7:15 pm.
The Lady Bison, 2-7, don’t return to the hardwood until next Monday when they travel to Punxsutawney to play the Lady Chucks. Punxsutawney defeated Clearfield on December 15, 57-43, at Clearfield. Junior varsity tips off at 6 pm with the varsity contest immediately following.
CURWENSVILLE – 66
Heather Thorp 2 0-0 4, Hannah Dixon 5 0-0 10, Ciara Strickland 14 3-4 35, Christene Limbert 6 0-1 12, Shauna Guy 2 1-2 5, Kayli Sedgwick 0 0-0 0, Dominique Newkirk 0 0-0 0, Nichole Warmuth 0 0-0 0, Camryn Richards 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 29 4-7 66
CLEARFIELD – 40
Margo Castagnolo 3 0-0 6, Emily Ryan 7 1-4 15, Tess Waring 0 0-0 0, Rachel Glenny 5 1-4 1, Mary Ishman 1 2-4 4, Emily Aveni 1 0-0 2, Janessa Riddell 1 0-0 2, Samantha Rockmore 0 0-0 0, Ally Lindstrom 0 0-0 0, Brooke Cline 0 0-0 0, TOTALS 18 4-12 40
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
CURWENSVILLE 16 16 17 17 66
CLEARFIELD 16 13 9 2 40
THREE-POINTERS: Strickland 4
OFFICIALS: Ken Knepp, Dave Gardner, Bud Brennen