HUNTINGDON — The Clearfield Area High School girls basketball team was rolling toward a sweep of Huntingdon through two quarters, but the Mountain League game turned into a barn-burner late in the fourth period before the Lady Bison escaped with a 55-52 victory.
With three players one foul away from exiting, the Lady Bison saw their 37-16 halftime bulge dwindle to three in the final minute after Alayna Ryan stepped to the foul line and drained two free throws to make it 55-51 with 18 seconds left.
Lady Bearcat Emily Kurtz was then fouled on a drive and made the first of two throws but missed the second.
However, Huntingdon wound up with possession as time was running out and Kynnedy Miller got off a three-point attempt that rimmed out at the buzzer.
“We were in deep foul trouble and played too tentative, but we hung on,” Clearfield coach Joey Castagnolo said.
Nikki Brossard did foul out, while Brooke Cline and Niki Chew managed to avoid a fifth personal.
Cline and Ally Lindstrom spurred the Lady Bison to a 22-10 first quarter with 10 and seven points, respectively.
Clearfield followed up with 15 points in the second period for the comfortable lead at halftime, but Huntingdon (4-12, 1-8 ML) closed the gap to 44-31 after three periods before really applying the pressure.
Cline and Ryan matched 19-point performances while Lindstrom chipped in a career-high 14 to spur the Lady Bison, who moved three games over .500 at 9-6 for the first time since the 2011-12 season while leveling their league record at 4-4.
Maddie Gearhart poured in 25 points for the Lady Bearcats.
The Lady Bison begin a three-game week with a trip down I-80 to Bellefonte Monday.
Huntingdon won the junior varsity game 35-8.
CLEARFIELD — 55
Nikki Brossard 0 1-2 1, Niki Chew 1 0-0 2, Brooke Cline 9 1-6 19, Alayna Ryan 6 7-9 19, Ally Lindstrom 5 3-8 14, Tesa Miller 0 0-1 0, Karlie Gisewhite 0 0-0 0, McClain Alt 0 0-0 0, Alexis Clark 0 0-0 0, Alyssa Twigg 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 21 12-26 55.
HUNTINGDON — 52
Kynnedy Miller 3 0-0 7, Heather Gutshall 1 0-2 2, Emily Kyle 0 0-0 0, Kaitlyn McElroy 2 0-1 4, Kurtz 1 3-6 6, Timani Easter 4 0-4 8, Allie Troup 0 0-0 0, Maddie Gearhart 10 5-6 25. TOTALS: 21 8-19 52.
Three-Point Field Goals – Clearfield 1 (Lindstrom); Huntingdon 2 (K. Miller, Kurtz).
Score by Quarters
Clearfield 22 15 7 11 – 55
Huntingdon 10 6 15 21 – 52
Lady Bison Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/09&10 | @ Brookville Tip-off Tourney | ||
| 12/09 | vs. Clarion-Limestone | 64 – 22 | 1 – 0 |
| 12/10 | vs. North Clarion | 39 – 51 | 1 – 1 |
| 12/14 | @ Central | 24 – 64 | 1 – 2 |
| 12/16 | HUNTINGDON | 43 – 35 | 2 – 2 |
| 12/19 | BELLEFONTE | 52 – 55 | 2 – 3 |
| 12/21 | @ Tyrone | 47 – 65 | 2 – 4 |
| 12/23 | DUBOIS | 52 – 45 | 3 – 4 |
| 12/28 | CURWENSVILLE | 52 – 51 | 4 – 4 |
| 01/03 | @ Punxsutawney | 33 – 50 | 4 – 5 |
| 01/06 | BALD EAGLE AREA | 46 – 27 | 5 – 5 |
| 01/09 | BROOKVILLE | 45 – 25 | 6 – 5 |
| 01/10 | @ Penns Valley | ppd. | 6 – 5 |
| 01/13 | PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA | 58 – 55 | 7 – 5 |
| 01/16 | ST. MARYS | 34 – 27 | 8 – 5 |
| 01/18 | CENTRAL | 23 – 36 | 8 – 6 |
| 01/20 | @ Huntingdon | 55 – 52 | 9 – 6 |
| 01/23 | @ Bellefonte | ||
| 01/25 | @ Penns Valley | ||
| 01/27 | TYRONE | ||
| 02/01 | @ Penns Valley | ||
| 02/03 | PENNS VALLEY | ||
| 02/07 | PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA | ||
| 02/08 | @ Curwensville |