CLEARFIELD – It just always seems to be that one bad quarter that does in a high school basketball team and Wednesday night was no different for the Clearfield girls team.
Bellefonte outscored the Lady Bison 18-9 in the second frame at Clearfield to take a 29-25 edge into the halftime break.
This was after the Lady Bison won the first quarter 16-11, and at one point had an eight point lead, 16-8, before the Lady Red Raiders started its comeback on the way to a 54-48 Mountain League victory.
Clearfield also had a 25-19 edge before Bellefonte closed the first sixteen minutes with a 10-0 run.
Clearfield Head Coach Joey Castagnolo talked about what needed to be done on the night that wasn’t, saying, “We had too many turnovers and didn’t do well on the boards or going after and picking up the loose balls. Although I thought both teams started out even it was still the little things we didn’t do that add up in a loss like this.”
The Lady Red Raiders and Lady Bison played a fairly even second half, with Bellefonte having a slight edge in scoring 25-23 to hold for the win.
Senior Alayna Ryan was high scorer on the night with the Lady Bison scoring machine hitting for 22 points, 16 in the second half, while freshman Emma Hipps hit for double figures with 11.
Ryan, now just 48 points away from the magical 1,000 for her career, had all of Clearfield’s fourth quarter tallies, which was nine.
For the victorious Bellefonte ladies, it was sophomore Maddie Tice leading the way with 20 points.
Castagnolo continued, commenting “I thought our freshmen played hard, but they are still learning on the fly. And it’s no secret that we need more balanced scoring. But we’ll keep working and know that eventually good things will happen.”
The Lady Bison are now 6-7 on the year and 2-5 in Mountain League action while the Lady Red Raiders improved to 5-8 and 3-4 in league play.
The junior varsity game was won by Bellefonte, defeating the Lady Bison by a score of 33-21.
Clearfield’s next game is scheduled for Friday against Bald Eagle Area. The junior varsity game tips off at 6 pm with the varsity contest to immediately follow.
In mid-December the Lady Bison lost to BEA at Wingate 31-27.
BELLEFONTE – 54
Maddie Steiner 1 3-4 5, Mallorie Smith 3 0-0 7, Mia Johnson 2 2-2 6, Maddie Tice 8 2-4 20, Sara Dehaas 4 1-2 9, Lily Gardner 0 0-0 0, Bella Corman 3 0-0 6, Taylor Kerr 0 1-2 1, Hannah Lauck 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 21 9-14 54
CLEARFIELD – 48
Megan Durandetta 3 0-0 8, Emma Hipps 5 0-0 11, Alayna Ryan 7 7-9 22, Olivia Bender 2 1-2 5, Tessa Miller 1 0-0 2, Kylie Van Tassel 0 0-0 0, Adrian Rowles 0 0-0 0, Mclain Alt 0 0-0 0, Paige Rhine 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 18 8-11 48
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
BELLEFONTE 11 18 16 9 54
CLEARFIELD 16 9 14 9 48
THREE-POINTERS: BELLEFONTE – 3 Tice 2, Smith CLEARFIELD – 4 Durandetta 2, Hipps, Ryan
OFFICIALS: David Day, Brandon Hoover, Kurt Miller
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 54 – 37 5 – 6
01/14 DUBOIS 42 – 40 ot 6 – 6
01/16 BELLEFONTE 54 – 48 6 – 7
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