CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield Area High School girls basketball team jumped out to a huge 36-20 halftime lead over Mountain League foe Philipsburg-Osceola Wednesday night on the Lady Bison home court.
Then Clearfield withstood a furious third quarter rally by the Lady Mounties to earn an entertaining 65-58 victory.
Six ladies hit double figures in the game, four from Clearfield and two from Philipsburg-Osceola.
Alayna Ryan had 19 for the Lady Bison followed by Nikki Brossard with 18, Megan Durandetta hitting for 16 and Brooke Cline chipping in 10 for the balanced Clearfield attack.
The Lady Mounties picked up 26 tallies from Halle Herrington and 19 more from Lacey Potter.
Both teams jumped back and forth in the first quarter with the Mounties taking the lead for the first time, at
9-6 with 6:10 to go in the first on a three point shot by Potter
That lead, the last the Lady Mounties would have, was erased on a trey by Bison freshman Durandetta with 4:37 remaining in the opening act.
Cline would add two buckets at the end of the first to put Clearfield up 19-13 heading into the second quarter
Brossard had a big first quarter, scoring eight points and pulling down several key rebounds.
With Clearfield leading 21-16, and 7:17 to play before the halftime break, the Lady Bison defense and offense stepped up to go on a 15-4 run to take what seemed like a very commanding margin 36-20 with just 16 minutes to play.
But the start of the second half had a lot of Lady Bison fans on the edge of their seats and perhaps squirming a bit.
Clearfield was ahead 38-22 at the 6:41 point of the third frame when the Mounties went on 16-2 run to cut the Lady Bison margin to just two points, 40-38, with 2:31 to play, yet still in the third.
Herrington had eight points during that stretch, with Potter hitting for five.
However the Lady Bison ended the third frame outscoring the Lady Mounties 10-4 for a 50-42 lead heading into the final eight minutes.
Philipsburg-Osceola did make one more run at the Lady Bison, and pulled to within three points at 52-49 with just over five minutes left in the battle.
That was the closest the Mounties would come as Ryan, with those five minutes left, scored eight of her 10 fourth quarter points to ensure the win for Clearfield.
A happy Clearfield head coach Joe Castagnolo said after the game, “That, by far, was our best game of the year and our overall balance tonight is why we came out on top. We stressed team play all night and it paid off for us. I thought we ran the floor very well in the first half but they (Philipsburg-Osceola ) adjusted at the half and didn‘t give us easy shots in the second half.”
Castagnolo closed stating, “This was the spark we needed. We needed this win tonight.”
Clearfield improves to 5-8 overall, and is now even at 3-3 in Mountain League action.
Philipsburg-Osceola drops to 5-7 on the 2017-18 season and 1-5 in league play.
The Lady Mounties connected on nine three pointers while Clearfield made five.
There was no junior varsity game.
The Lady Bison are home again on Friday night, hosting Central with JV tipping off at 6 pm and the varsity to immediately follow.
Central defeated Clearfield, in mid December, at Central, 46-30.
PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA – 58
Halle Herrington 9 4-4 26, Cassidy Hughes 0 0-0 0, Lacey Potter 7 0-0 19, Kyleigh Kennedy 2 2-4 6, Loryn Hughes 1 1-2 3, Lindsey Bordas 2 0-0 4
TOTALS – 21 7-10 58
CLEARFIELD – 65
Megan Durandetta 4 4-6 16, Nikki Brossard 9 0-0 18, Brooke Cline 5 0-0 10, Alayna Ryan 7 4-6 19, Tesa Miller 1 0-2 2, Karlie Gisewhite 0 0-0 0, Paige Rhine 0 0-0 0, McLain Alt 0 0-0 0, Kylie
VanTassel 0-0 0, Adrian Rowles 0 0-0 0
TOTALS – 26 8-15 65
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA 13 7 22 16 58
CLEARFIELD 19 17 14 15 65
THREE-POINTERS: PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA – 9 Potter 5, Herrington 4
CLEARFIELD – 5 Durandetta 4, Ryan
OFFICIALS: Kenny Knepp, Bud Brennen, George Schneider
Lady Bison Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/09 | @ Brookville Tip-off Tourney | ||
| 12/09 | vs. North Clarion | 51 – 58 | 0 – 1 |
| 12/10 | vs. Clarion-Limestone | 60 – 19 | 1 – 1 |
| 12/13 | @ Central | 30 – 46 | 1 – 2 |
| 12/15 | HUNTINGDON | 32 – 54 | 1 – 3 |
| 12/18 | @ Brookville | 48 – 65 | 1 – 4 |
| 12/19 | BELLEFONTE | 51 – 42 | 2 – 4 |
| 12/22 | @ DuBois | 36 – 41 | 2 – 5 |
| 12/28 | @ Curwensville | 45 – 15 | 3 – 5 |
| 01/03 | PUNXSUTAWNEY | 24 – 41 | 3 – 6 |
| 01/05 | @ Tyrone | ppd. | 3 – 6 |
| 01/09 | BALD EAGLE AREA | 45 – 22 | 4 – 6 |
| 01/12 | @ Penns Valley | 30 – 53 | 4 – 7 |
| 01/15 | @ St. Marys | 35 – 53 | 4 – 8 |
| 01/17 | PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA | 65 – 58 | 5 – 8 |
| 01/19 | CENTRAL | ||
| 01/20 | @ Tyrone | ||
| 01/23 | @ Huntingdon | ||
| 01/26 | @ Bellefonte | ||
| 01/31 | TYRONE | ||
| 02/02 | @ Bald Eagle Area | ||
| 02/06 | PENNS VALLEY | ||
| 02/09 | @ Philipsburg-Osceola | ||
| 02/13 | CURWENSVILLE |
