BROOKVILLE — Tis the season for giving, and that’s what playmaker Alayna Ryan was doing in the first half on her way to a near quadruple-double in the Clearfield Area High School girls basketball team’s 58-30 win over Clarion- Limestone in Saturday afternoon’s consolation game of the Brookville Tip-Off Tournament.
The senior point guard handed out seven assists as the Lady Bison rolled to a 30-16 halftime lead.
“She’s unselfish like that,” Clearfield coach Joey Castagnolo said. “Then the points came to her.”
After intermission, Ryan turned into a scoring machine, especially in the third quarter.
The Lady Lions had closed to within 12 points when Ryan completely took over the game, starting with a putback at the 5:19 mark.
Just over two-and-a-half minutes later, the Lady Bison’s cushion had ballooned to 45-21 with her pouring in five more field goals in a row.
The last four came on consecutive steals she immediately turned into three layups around a pull-up one-hander from the foul line.
Ryan tacked on four more baskets in the fourth quarter to finish with 28 points just over 24 hours after netting only four in Clearfield’s loss to Brookville in the tourney opener.
She recorded 10 steals and was just shy of double figures in assists with nine and rebounds with eight in a dazzling, dominating performance landed her on the all-tournament team.
“I was just so happy for Alayna,” Castagnolo said. “She knew she had a bad shooting game (Friday). She just took over and made it a 20-point game in that third quarter. Fast.”
The Lady Bison jumped ahead 7-0 with Faith Ogden converting a Ryan pass, Tesa Miller swishing a short jumper and Megan Durandetta draining the first of her trio of three-pointers.
They were up 17-11 at the first rest stop.
The paced turned frenetic and helter-skelter in the second period, when the Lady Bison cashed only six of 24 shots but forced a dozen turnovers.
“A lot had to do with the girls not having played together long enough,” Castagnolo said. “And I don’t know why they (Lady Lions) kept on pressing.”
Ryan finally changed the scoreboard via a scooping layup with 5:19 left in the half and later added a drive for two before dishing to Ogden for a pair of baskets.
With Castagnolo calling on his back-ups, the gap widened to 14 points at the break on a putback by Adrian Rowles and a three-pointer by McLain Alt.
Clearfield (1-1) made it runaway in the second half, building its biggest lead at 58-25 midway through the fourth quarter before the second unit logged even more valuable minutes.
“That’s important going forward,” Castagnolo said. “It’s just going to pay dividends.”
He was pleased to see nine of the 10 Lady Bison contributed points and surprised to learn none went to the foul line.
They did attempt a whopping 84 shots from the floor, making 27 for 32 percent.
The Lady Lions, who were led by Anna Burns with seven points, shot only 19 percent (12-for-63) and hit just six of 20 free throws.
Rebounds were unusually high because of so many shots, and Clarion-Limestone had a 62-51 edge that was negated by 37 turnovers, 20 of them steals by the aggressive Clearfield defenders.
Miller topped the Lady Bison with 12 rebounds and also blocked several Lady Lion shots.
“I was happy for the girls, to bounce back from (Friday),” Castagnolo said. “That team (Clarion-Limestone) is not that bad with their first unit. And they didn’t give up.”
Brookville claimed the championship for the 11th time in the 25-year history of the tournament with a 47-37 victory over North Clarion.
Lady Raider Marcy Schindler was selected Most Valuable Player and was joined on the all-tourney team by Morgan and Madison Johnson as well as North Clarion’s Haley Sherman and Abby Gatesman.
Clearfield begins Mountain League play against Bald Eagle Area at Wingate Tuesday.
CLEARFIELD — 58
Megan Durandetta 3 0-0 9, Emma Hipps 1 0-0 2, Faith Ogden 3 0-0 6, Tesa Miller 2 0-0 4, Alayna Ryan 14 0-0 28, Olivia Bender 1 0-0 2, Adrian Rowles 1 0-0 2, McLain Alt 1 0-0 3, Paige Rhine 1 0-0 2, Kylie Van Tassel 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 27 0-0 58.
CLARION-LIMESTONE — 30
Anna Burns 2 3-8 7, Madi Craig 1 0-0 2, Emma Smith 0 1-2 1, Abby Simpson 1 0-0 2, Anna Kennemuth 1 0-0 2, Monica Heath 1 1-4 3, Janelle Pezzuti 3 0-0 6, Frances Milliron 0 0-1 0, Sarah Acree 2 1-2 3, Sydney Simpson 1 0-3 2, Madison Wenner 0 0-0 0, Elizabeth Gruver 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 12 6-20 30.
Three-Point Field Goals – Clearfield 4 (Durandetta 3, Alt).
Score by Quarters
Clearfield 17 13 15 13 – 58
Clarion-Limestone 11 5 7 7 – 30
Officials – Bill Overly, Rich Rhoades and Ron Dolby.
Lady Bison Scoreboard:
Date Opponent Score Record
12/07 & 08 @ Brookville Tip-off Tourney
12/07 vs. Brookville 30 – 54 0 – 1
12/08 vs. Clarion-Limestone 58 – 30 1 – 1
12/11 @ Bald Eagle Area
12/14 @ Huntingdon
12/17 BROOKVILLE
12/19 PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA
12/21 @ Tyrone
12/27 CURWENSVILLE
01/04 @ Punxsutawney
01/08 PENNS VALLEY
01/11 @ Central
01/14 DUBOIS
01/16 BELLEFONTE
01/18 BALD EAGLE AREA
01/22 HUNTINGDON
01/23 ST. MARYS
01/25 @ Philipsburg-Osceola
01/30 TYRONE
02/01 @ Penns Valley
02/05 CENTRAL
02/08 @ Bellefonte
02/12 @ Curwensville