CURWENSVILLE – After dismantling the Curwensville Area High School girls basketball team at West Branch in mid-December, 74-27, the Lady Warriors turned the trick once again Wednesday night on the Lady Tide home floor, 73-44.
And once again it was a lack of offense in the second half that killed any hopes of a Lady Tide upset over the Lady Warriors.
Curwensville played an exceptional first half, trailing after a back-and-forth first quarter 23-21, and then at the break were only down five, 38-33.
Lady Tide head coach Erik Duriancik liked some of the first half, but also saw mistakes, saying after the game, “It was a good first half for us, but we still had some small letdowns at times that could have actually had us in the lead at halftime. And, again, we need to eliminate the mistakes.”
Curwensville had a four point edge, 9-5, with 5:40 remaining in the first frame thanks to a bucket by freshman Madison Weber.
West Branch had the game knotted at 10-10 on a three-point basket by sophomore Skylar Ceprish at the midway point of the first quarter.
Not to be outdone, the Tide jumped back in front 12-11 thanks to a field goal by junior Christine Limbert at the 3:10 mark of the first.
West Branch and Curwensville went back and forth the rest of the quarter with the Lady Tide taking a four point lead, 21-17, on a basket by Limbert and one by junior Hannah Dixon with 1:10 to go on the clock in the opening eight minutes.
A three-point shot by Taylor Pedmo, and another by Jalee Rockey gave the Lady Warriors a 23-21 margin heading into quarter number two.
West Branch stretched its edge to five points, 30-25, in the second quarter before Curwensville scored six straight tallies on a basket from Dixon and two more from Weber to jump back in front, 31-30, with 2:32 left before the intermission.
It was the final lead of the night for Curwensville, as the Lady Warriors went on an 8-2 run to end the first half up by five at 38-33.
Then came the dreadful second half for the Lady Tide.
In the first game between the two Moshannon Valley League (MVL) rivals the Lady Warriors took a 19-2 edge in the third quarter to win easily.
And it happened to the Lady Tide again in this game, being out pointed in the third, 19-6.
West Branch utilized a 13-2 run at the end of the third stanza to stretch the lead to 57-39 going into the final eight minutes of action.
After a really good first 16 minutes, Curwensville lost the second half battle 35-11 to West Branch, now 9-7 overall and 4-1 in the MVL.
West Branch had four players in double figures as Pedmo dumped in a team high 20 points, followed by Ceprish with 14 and 12 each from Rockey and Breana Hayward.
Dixon had a good night on the offensive end for the Lady Tide, tying Pedmo for a game high with 20 points while Limbert and Weber both added 11.
West Branch connected on nine three-pointers in the game.
Duriancik closed by commenting, “We are trying to stress the positives and not dwell on the mistakes. We make no excuses, we didn’t get it done.”
There was no junior varsity game.
The Lady Tide, 1-14 overall and 1-4 in the MVL, travel to Johnsonburg for a Friday night game against the Ramettes with JV action starting at 6 pm and the varsity to immediately follow.
Johnsonburg defeated the Lady Tide at Curwensville on January 6, in a low scoring affair, 33-17.
WEST BRANCH – 73
Jalee Rockey 5 0-2 12, Leanna Prinkey 2 0-2 4, Julia Herring 2 1-2 5, Breana Hayward 6 0-0 12, Alaina Speigle 1 0-0 2, Taylor Pedmo 6 4-6 20, Skylar Ceprish 5 1-2 14, Hailey Prestash 2 0-0 4, TOTALS – 29 6-14 73
CURWENSVILLE – 44
Nikki Wormuth 1 0-0 2, Hannah Dixon 6 8-11 20, Christine Limbert 5 0-0 11, Madison Weber 5 1-5 11, Kristina McCracken 0 0-0 0, Madison Olson 0 0-0 0, Madison McCracken 0 0-2 0, Britney Wagner 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 17 9-18 44
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
WEST BRANCH 23 15 19 16 73
CURWENSVILLE 21 12 6 5 44
THREE-POINTERS: WEST BRANCH – 9 Pedmo 4, Ceprish 3, Rockey 2 CURWENSVILLE – 1 Limbert
OFFICIALS: Bill Overly, Dave Gardner
Lady Tide Scoreboard:
Date Opponent Score Record
12/04 @ Glendale 20 – 54 0 – 1
12/08 @ Brockway 24 – 46 0 – 2
12/14 @ West Branch 27 – 74 0 – 3
12/18 KANE 23 – 49 0 – 4
12/21 RIDGWAY 28 – 47 0 – 5
12/29 CLEARFIELD 24 – 63 0 – 6
01/04 @ DuBois Central 33 – 54 0 – 7
01/06 JOHNSONBURG 17 – 33 0 – 8
01/11 GLENDALE 47 – 55 0 – 9
01/12 ELK COUNTY ppd. 0 – 9
01/13 ELK COUNTY 39 – 53 0 – 10
01/15 @ Harmony 38 – 51 1 – 10
01/19 @ Ridgway 27 – 61 1 – 11
01/22 BROCKWAY 32 – 42 1 – 12
01/25 DUBOIS CENTRAL 33 – 68 1 – 13
01/27 WEST BRANCH 44 – 73 1 – 14
01/29 @ Johnsonburg
02/02 SHEFFIELD
02/04 @ Clearfield
02/05 @ Kane
02/06 @ Mo Valley
02/09 HARMONY
02/10 MO VALLEY