CURWENSVILLE – Playing the Curwensville girls basketball team for the second time in five days the Moshannon Valley Damsels came into Wednesday night hoping for another win over the Lady Tide that would keep its chances for a Moshannon Valley league (MVL) tri-championship with West Branch and Glendale still a possibility.
It wasn’t to be however, as Curwensville played its best game of the season to pull out the mini-upset in a game that was exciting down to the last seconds, 52-47.
The Damsels beat Curwensville 62-42 on Saturday afternoon at Moshannon Valley Area High School.
First year Curwensville head coach Eric Duriancik said afterwards, “They (Curwensville) really came up with a great overall team effort. Everyone just helped each other tonight to earn this win. The seniors (Shauna Guy and Kristina McCracken) playing their last game for Curwensville will always remember this night with their teammates for years to come.”
Curwensville, led by eight points from junior Christene Limbert, stayed close to the Damsels and after the first quarter trailed by just one,13-12, setting the stage for a game that would more than likely be a tight battle the rest of the night. And it was.
Then, playing her last game for the Lady Tide, Shauna Guy took over the second eight minutes with 10 tallies as Curwensville outscored Moshannon Valley 14-7 to lead at the intermission 26-20.
The Lady Tide, trailing 15-13 with 5:21 to go before the half, went on a 10-0 run with six from Guy and four from junior Hannah Dixon to take an eight point lead at 23-15.
Curwensville, from the 5:21 point of the second, outscored the Damsels 13-5 to gain the six point edge going into the third quarter.
The Damsels used defense to get back into the game by limiting the Lady Tide to just eight third quarter points while scoring 12 for themselves.
Curwensville did take another eight point lead at 34-26 with just 2:11 to go in the third frame before the Damsels closed the quarter on a 6-0 run with a three point play from senior Hannah Kitko and three points off of the bench from sophomore Paige Richner to trail by just two, 34-32, going into the final eight minutes.
In the final quarter Curwensville stretched its lead to its biggest of the night, 46-37, on a basket by Guy, and with 2:13 to play the Lady Tide faithful in attendance had to assume the game would end up in the win column for the home squad.
With Curwensville leading 48-40, thanks to a field goal from Dixon, and only 1:56 remaining, the Damsels came up with one last push to pull to within two at 48-46 on a basket by Chloe Blake and four free throws from Hannah Kitko.
Moshannon Valley had to put the Lady Tide on the free throw line to get the ball back and picked on Dixon (64% on the year) to send to the charity stripe.
Wrong choice. Dixon, with 34 seconds left, ended up going to the line three different times and calmly knocked down four of six to ice the game.
Dixon led all scorers with 19 points while Guy had 14 and Limbert 13 to fuel the Lady Tide attack.
Hannah Kitko, a career 1,000 point player, paced the Damsels with 17. Teammate McKenzie McCoy, a freshman, chipped in with 10.
From the line the Lady Tide hit 13 of 23 while Moshannon Valley connected on 11 of 26.
Duriancik talked about the game and his vision going forward, commenting, “We wanted to play better from the first game in early December up to tonight, and at times I know we did. Hopefully everyone comes back and they all get better to help us make a run, because my vision is to win a league title and a District championship.”
Not forgetting his seniors, Duriancik added, “I want to thank Shauna (Guy) and Kristina (McCracken) for their leadership and effort throughout their final year.”
The Lady Tide finished the season with a overall record of 3-19 and finished 2-6 in MVL action.
Moshannon Valley, now 7-14 overall and 4-3 in league play, has one game remaining on the schedule, against Harmony on Friday night.
West Branch and Glendale each claimed a part of the 2015-16 MVL championship with identical 6-2 records.
In junior varsity action it was the Damsels beating the Lady Tide by a score of 33-13.
MOSHANNON VALLEY – 47
Emma Kitko 3 0-3 8, Reese Harlow 1 1-4 3, McKenzie McCoy 4 1-3 10, Hannah Kitko 4 8-14 17, Chloe Blake 3 0-0 6, Paige Richner 1 1-2 3, Alexis Knepp 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 16 11-26 47
CURWENSVILLE – 52
Nikki Wormuth 1 1-2 3, Hannah Dixon 7 4-9 19, Christene Limbert 4 5-6 13, Shauna Guy 5 3-6 14, Madison Weber 1 0-0 3, Kristina McCracken 0 0-0 0, Madison Olson 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 18 13-23 52
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
MOSHANNON VALLEY 13 7 12 15 47
CURWENSVILLE 12 14 8 18 52
THREE-POINTERS: MOSHANNON VALLEY – 4 E. Kitko 2, McCoy, H. Kitko CURWENSVILLE – 3 Dixon, Guy, Weber
OFFICIALS: Bill Zupich, Rich Gormont
Final 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 38 – 53 1 – 15
02/02 SHEFFIELD 43 – 21 2 – 15
02/04 @ Clearfield 30 – 80 2 – 16
02/05 @ Kane 41 – 55 2 – 17
02/06 @ Mo Valley 42 – 62 2 – 18
02/09 HARMONY 44 – 49 2 – 19
02/10 MO VALLEY 52 – 47 3 – 19