HYDE – The Penns Valley girls basketball team showed Tuesday night why they are perhaps the best squad in the Mountain League this season, defeating Clearfield on the Lady Bison home floor 71-32 team in a contest that ended up in with the mercy rule taking over early in the fourth quarter.
With the victory the Lady Rams are now 6-2 on the season with a perfect 4-0 Mountain League record, while Clearfield slips to 4-6 and 0-4 in league play.
Lady Bison Head Coach Joey Castagnolo summed it up, saying, “The effort was still there tonight, but then Penns Valley got a couple steals, some turnovers and hit a few three’s and the next thing you know we are down by 15.”
Clearfield did play a good first eight minutes and only trailed 15-11 going into the second quarter but it was the second and third quarters that propelled the Lady Rams to the win.
The Lady Bison were outscored 19-4 in the second, then a whopping 27-7 in the third frame that pretty much put the hammer down on Clearfield.
Continuing with post game comments, Castagnolo said, “I thought we did battle real well in the first quarter, but we were just outmanned tonight by a very good Penns Valley team. All we can do now is stay focused, come to practice and just keep battling.”
Clearfield was paced on offense by its leading scorer, senior Alayna Ryan, who netted 17 points on the night.
The well balanced Lady Ram offense had three girls hit for double figures with Bella Culver hitting for 16, and Hannah Montminy and Jordan Andrus each adding 14 tallies.
Penns Valley also won the junior varsity game, defeating Clearfield 48-22. McLain Alt and Lauryn Kitchen each had six points for the Lady Bison.
Up next for the Lady Bison is a road trip at Central Wednesday with JVs tipping off at 6 pm and the varsity contest to immediately follow.
PENNS VALLEY – 71
Emma Butler 3 0-0 7, Bella Culver 8 0-1 16, Paige Kubalak 2 0-0 4, Hannah Montminy 6 2-2 14, Jordan Andrus 5 1-2 14, Lydia Collison 2 0-0 5, Leah Beban 2 0-1 4, Cassandra Ulmanic 0 0-0 0, Kennedy Welshans 2 1-3 5, Katie Martell 0 0-0 0, Katie Romig 0 0-0 0, Kailen Winkelblech 1 0-0 2, TOTALS – 31 4-9 71
CLEARFIELD – 32
Megan Durandetta 0 0-0 0, Emma Hipps 2 0-0 4, Alayna Ryan 5 5-6 17, Olivia Bender 0 2-2 2, Tessa Miller 2 2-4 6, Paige Rhine 0 1-2 1, Adrian Rowles 1 0-0 2, McLain Alt 0 0-0 0, Kylie Van Tassel 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 19 10-14 32
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
PENNS VALLEY 15 19 27 10 71
CLEARFIELD 11 4 7 10 32
THREE-POINTERS: PENNS VALLEY – 5 Andrus 3, Butler, Collison CLEARFIELD – 2 Ryan 2
OFFICIALS: Charles Glasser, Tim Fry, Tony Sottile
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 27 – 31 1 – 2
12/14 @ Huntingdon 42 – 72 1 – 3
12/17 BROOKVILLE 57 – 53 2 – 3
12/19 PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA 59 – 50 3 – 3
12/21 @ Tyrone 17 – 73 3 – 4
12/27 CURWENSVILLE 60 – 36 4 – 4
01/04 @ Punxsutawney 27 – 50 4 – 5
01/08 PENNS VALLEY 32 – 71 4 – 6
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