Second Half Collapse Fuels St. Mary’s Come-From-Behind Victory Over Clearfield

HYDE — There was a lot of momentum on the side of the Lady Bison of Clearfield.  The last two games inside the Bison Gymnasium, there seemed to be a different feeling among the girls along with head coach Joey Castagnolo and his staff.  Two consecutive wins in the league had the confidence heading into Friday night’s game against the Lady Dutch of St. Mary’s at a peak.

In the first 16 minutes, the team played tough, made key shots, and were in cohesion the entire time, getting out to a 10-point lead.

The problem was, the game was 32 minutes long.  It was a completely different Lady Bison team in the second half, just as it was a completely different Lady Dutch.  The visiting squad took the lead on the final shot of the third quarter, and despite having at one time a double-digit lead, it was Clearfield that looked up at the scoreboard at the final buzzer on the wrong end of a 45-44 heartbreaking loss.

Castagnolo afterward was in disbelief of what he saw.

“They played us pretty tough man-to-man, in-your-face, physical, and we had no answer.  When they started nipping away at our lead, we started to panic,” he said.  “I could see it in their eyes, and that’s why I had to burn so many timeouts to try and slow them down.

“I had plays set up, but we just over passed on them, had turnovers.  The little things just added up.”

The Bison were hot from the opening tip, opening up a nine-point lead at the end of one quarter.  During the second frame the lead was at one point up to 12, before St. Mary’s closed it to a 30-20 deficit heading into the locker room.  But, the home squad seemed to lose steam when the ball was tossed in for the second half.  St. Mary’s opened up with an 8-2 run, before one key basket would give them the ultimate boost.

On the final shot in the third quarter, Caitlyn Bankovich took a quick in-bounds pass at the baseline and took the shot, right as the buzzer was sounding, it met the net.  Officials pointed to the scoring desk and indicated that the bucket counted, giving the visiting squad their first lead of the night with a 34-32 edge heading into the final frame.

In that final quarter, it was Rachel Bauer that took over the scoring.  She wouldn’t score from the floor in the final eight minutes, but every point came from the foul line, and Castagnolo knew that when it was her at the charity stripe, it was a near guarantee to go in.

“That girl, she can hit foul shots.  She’s a state champion in free throws, but what can you do when she rides the basket,” he said.

Bauer would finish the night with 13 points plus seven boards.  Teammate Rachelle Armanini would lead all scorers with 18 points, plus added in 12 boards.

On the Bison side of the court, Rachel Glenny had a team-high 16 points and six rebounds, while Mary Ishman added another 10 and seven, respectively.

Down the stretch of the contest, it became a back-and forth game as both teams began pushing one another on defense, with both squads going man-on-man and turning up the heat.  With the Lady Dutch up just one point with under two minutes to go, it was the shortest player on the visiting squad, Michelle Bauer, that scored the final two points for St. Mary’s.  Her two free throws put the blue-and-red clad squad up by three, and put the heat onto the home team in white to figure out how to get the needed points to tie the game and send it into overtime.

“The little girl, she surprised me.  Her hitting those shots, that was big under pressure,” Castagnolo said of the shots.

The final chance to get to a tie game at the end of regulation came when Emily Ryan took the ball on an in-bounds play on the baseline.  St. Mary’s played the front while Clearfield looked to get the ball over the top.  The Lady Dutch were playing close and were not letting the Bison try for the shot behind the arc.  It forced the home team to play inside and hope for a foul to come on a shot that would go in the basket.

“If they didn’t cover up front, then the girls know to cut to the basket.  We were down three, it just took too long to develop.  We’re not a three-point shooting team; we don’t even look for it,” Castagnolo said.

That opportunity came as Glenny had an inside look while getting a rebound on a missed shot, and made the final basket of the game with minimal time remaining.  Unfortunately, there was no foul called on the play, and the one-point loss stood at the final buzzer.

Clearfield would win the opening junior varsity contest, 45-14.

Castagnolo was unsure of what to make of what happened, and all he could do is look back and think his team did everything right, but could not put together an entire game to send the Bison faithful home happy.

I don’t know if we thought we had it won with 41 seconds left in the first half, the girls were smiling and everything.  It was a good high school basketball game, we just came out losers,” he said in disbelief.

Clearfield (4-9) finishes its longest home stretch of the season next Wednesday when they host the Lady Dragons of Central.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

St. Mary’s   3   19   12   11   –   45

Clearfield   12   18   2   14   –   44

St. Mary’s 45

M. Bauer 1 2-2 4, Gardner 0 0-0 0, Lenze 1 1-6 3, Barackman 0 0-0 0, Mosier 0 0-0 0, Bankovich 2 3-6 7, Cherry 0 0-0 0, Armanini 9 0-0 18, R. Bauer 2 8-10 13, Vargas 0 0-0 0.  TOTALS 15 14-24 45

Clearfield 44

Castagnolo 2 0-0 4, Cline 0 0-0 0, Ryan 3 0-1 6, Lindstrom 0 0-0 0, Waring 0 0-0 0, Riddell 1 0-2 2, Rockmore 1 0-0 2, Aveni 1 2-2 4, Glenny 7 2-2 16, Ishman 5 0-0 10, Boal 0 0-0 0.  TOTALS 20 4-7 44.

GAME STATISTICS
St. Mary’s/Clearfield

Field Goals Made-Attempted:  15-54/20-42

Team Rebounds:  30/25

Fouls:  11/16

Turnovers:  21/29

Three-Point Shots:  R. Bauer/None

Lady Bison Scoreboard: