CURWENSVILLE — The Curwensville Area High School girls basketball team’s chances for making the Allegheny Mountain League Playoffs took a hit Friday night when revenge-minded Johnsonburg invaded Patton Hall and pulled off a 51-38 shocker.
The Lady Tide had won by that same margin, 60-47, back on Jan. 6, but they learned early in the second quarter that the Ramettes were on a mission in the rematch even though they were without two injured starters, Ashley Imbrogno and Ashley Watts.
Down 7-4, Curwensville ended the first period on a 9-1 run as Christine Limbert converted one of her 13 rebounds into a putback, Ciara Strickland drained a deep three-pointer and Shauna Guy cashed an offensive rebound and then passed to a cutting Limbert for an easy two points.
After Guy swished two foul shots 10 seconds into the second quarter, both teams reversed form as the Ramettes employed a full court press that completely changed the complexion of the game.
The Lady Tide missed five shots and were guilty of five turnovers in the next 4½ minutes, the Ramettes got hot and reeled off 13 points, including five by point guard Nicole Myers and four by Taylor Wolfe.
“They weathered the storm in the first quarter, and we let ’em hang around and gain their confidence,” Curwensville coach Rusty McCracken said. “They didn’t miss a whole lot of shots. And we just couldn’t recover from that, for whatever reason.
“We were hurrying shots, not taking good shots. I just didn’t see a comfort zone out there from anybody.”
Limbert ended the drought after another good pass from Guy, but the Lady Tide’s struggles from the floor continued. They misfired on their last seven shots, finishing 1-for-14 in the second period, and went to the locker room staring at a 26-18 deficit.
Curwensville’s shooting improved only slightly in the third quarter, 3-for-16, and Johnsonburg maintained at least an eight-point advantage, with neither team scoring in the final 3:40.
A big key in the Lady Tide’s field goal percentage of just 21.3 through 24 minutes was Johnsonburg’s diamond-and-one defense that had Wolfe sticking like glue to Strickland, who had to really work hard for 14 points, 10 below her average and half of what she put up in the earlier meeting.
“People always are playing her tough, and her ankle’s not 100 percent, so it was even tougher for her to shake loose,” McCracken said. “But we have to do a better job of screening and getting her open and getting her the ball. Even when we did get her open, they collapsed and had two people on her. They did a good defensive job.”
The Lady Tide, which switched to a man defense later in the third quarter, did make a charge early in the final period.
A putback by Guy and a free throw by Limbert narrowed it to 35-29. And, following a layup by the Ramettes’ Brianna Quiggle, Strickland hit a runner in the lane and sank two free throws.
“We were within four points at the six-minute mark and then, I don’t know where we went after that,” McCracken said. “I thought we had righted everything, and all of a sudden they were up by 10 again, so it was just one of those things where we didn’t do what we had to do to win.”
Once again, the Lady Tide went almost 4½ minutes without changing their side of the scoreboard, while Ramettes got four free throws by Myers, two buckets by Wolfe and one by Quiggle to clinch the upset at 47-33 with 1:45 remaining.
Wolfe finished her outstanding effort on both ends of the court with a game-high 15 points, and Myers contributed 13.
That Johnsonburg (6-13, 5-5 AML-North Division) shot only 33.9 percent (19-for-56) was somewhat surprising to McCracken.
“I thought they shot really well,” he said. “We were in their face more than once, and they still knocked them down. That’s just focus.
“It was a well-played game on their part, and we just were not comfortable tonight.”
Guy just missed a double-double, scoring 10 points and pulling down nine missed shots for Curwensville, which fell one game behind Brockway in the chase for the South Division’s second berth in the AML Playoffs.
The Lady Tide, 10-6 overall, are 3-5 in the AML-South with games at Sheffield Tuesday and at home against Kane Friday. The Lady Rovers are 5-4 and will go to Kane Tuesday.
Johnsonburg’s jayvees also were victorious, 36-17. Nikki Wormuth had seven points for Curwensville.
JOHNSONBURG — 51
Brianna Cardoni 1 1-3 3, Makenna Rowles 3 1-4 7, Taylor Wolfe 6 3-4 15, Olivia Perez-McGill 4 0-0 8, Nicole Myers 3 6-10 13, Emily Dillinger 0 0-0 0, Brianna Quiggle 2 1-2 5. TOTALS: 19 12-23 51.
CURWENSVILLE — 38
Heather Thorp 0 1-3 1, Hannah Dixon 3 0-1 6, Christine Limbert 3 1-2 7, Ciara Strickland 4 5-6 14, Kayli Sedgwick 0 0-0 0, Camryn Richards 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 14 9-14 38.
Three-Point Field Goals – Johnsonburg 1 (Myers); Curwensville 1 (Strickland).
Score by Quarters
Johnsonburg 8 18 9 16 – 51
Curwensville 13 5 8 12 – 38
Officials – Dave Gardner and Marven Martell.
Lady Tide Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/08 | MO VALLEY | 61 – 45 | 1 – 0 |
| 12/09 | BROCKWAY | 67 – 46 | 2 – 0 |
| 12/12 | @ Ridgway | 42 – 36 | 3 – 0 |
| 12/19 | @ Kane | 46 – 51 | 3 – 1 |
| 12/29 | @ Clearfield | 66 – 40 | 4 – 1 |
| 01/02 | DUBOIS CENTRAL | 30 – 40 | 4 – 2 |
| 01/05 | WEST BRANCH | 58 – 37 | 5 – 2 |
| 01/06 | @ Johnsonburg | 60 – 47 | 6 – 2 |
| 01/08 | HARMONY | ppd. | 6 – 2 |
| 01/13 | @ Elk County Catholic | 25 – 52 | 6 – 3 |
| 01/15 | @ Mo Valley | 50 – 30 | 7 – 3 |
| 01/20 | RIDGWAY | 48 – 49 | 7 – 4 |
| 01/22 | HARMONY | 47 – 38 | 8 – 4 |
| 01/23 | @ Brockway | 47 – 40 | 9 – 4 |
| 01/26 | @ DuBois Central | ppd. | 9 – 4 |
| 01/27 | @ DuBois Central | 33 – 60 | 9 – 5 |
| 01/28 | GLENDALE | 50 – 33 | 10 – 5 |
| 01/30 | JOHNSONBURG | 38 – 51 | 10 – 6 |
| 02/03 | @ Sheffield | ||
| 02/04 | @ Glendale | ||
| 02/06 | KANE | ||
| 02/09 | @ Harmony | ||
| 02/11 | @ West Branch | ||
| 02/13 | CLEARFIELD |