HYDE – Perhaps it was the fatigue from playing back to back. Or the close loss Tuesday night to Huntingdon by two points, 54-52. Maybe even the emotion on Tuesday night when Clearfield Lady Bison senior Alayna Ryan went over the 1,000 point mark for her career.
Whatever it was, it showed up in the second half of Wednesday night’s game with the St. Marys Lady Dutch as the Lady Bison dropped a 43-31 decision.
Lady Bison head coach Joey Castagno said afterwards, “We looked tired tonight and that may have been because of the emotional game we played last night against Huntingdon. That may have been the reason why we couldn’t make key shots at times to keep us in the game.”
Clearfield started out fine in the first quarter and jumped out to a 10-8 lead only to watch St. Mary’s go on an 8-0 run to end the first and take a 16-10 edge into the second frame.
The Lady Dutch continued to stretch its lead in the second quarter, once by nine, then by 11 and finally by 12 to go into the break up 32-20.
The five three pointers that the Lady Dutch dropped in during the first half surely helped gain the double digit first half margin.
On the night the St. Marys girls drained eight treys to just one for Clearfield.
Castagnolo then stated, “Saint Marys is a very quick team, and they are certainly well coached. And they threw in a lot of double teams tonight. But we had the height advantage but couldn’t use it to keep it close.”
Neither squad had what you would call a productive second half on offense as the first points scored in the third quarter was on a three-pointer by Lady Dutch Britney Shaw with 5:02 to play that extended the St. Marys lead to 35-20.
Clearfield’s first points of the second half came from McLain Alt on a trey with 4:46 to go before the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter was certainly offensively ugly as both St. Marys and Clearfield each managed a meager two points.
Alt hit the last bucket for Clearfield, a two pointer, with 2:32 left in the contest, that set the final score at 43-31, St. Marys.
Ryan lead all scorers on the night with 14 points with Kyla Johnson netting 10 for the Lady Dutch who are now 10-3 on the year and will likely have a rematch with the Lady Bison in the District 9 playoffs coming in February.
Clearfield had a really good night at the free throw line, hitting 10 of 12 attempts.
The junior varsity game went to Clearfield, coming from behind to defeat the Lady Dutch 32-28. High scorer for Clearfield was McLain Alt with 12 points.
Clearfield (7-9) travels to Philipsburg on Friday to play the Lady Mounties with the junior varsity starting at 6 pm and the varsity to immediately follow.
In December at Clearfield the Lady Bison beat Philipsburg-Osceola 59-50.
ST. MARYS – 43
Kaylee Muccio 3 0-0 8, Kyla Johnson 4 1-2 10, Britney Shaw 2 0-0 6, Megan Quesenberry 2 0-0 4, Samantha Hayes 2 0-0 4, Abby Adamski 0 0-0 0, Lauren Eckert 2 0-0 6, Allison Schlimm 2 0-0 5, Maria Chiappelli 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 17 1-2 43
CLEARFIELD – 31
Megan Durandetta 0 0-0 0, Emma Hipps 1 0-0 2, Alayna Ryan 5 4-4 14, Olivia Bender 0 2-2 2, Tessa Miller 2 4-4 8, Paige Rhine 0 0-0 0, McLain Alt 2 0-0 5, Adrian Rowles 0 0-2 0, Kyle Van Tassel 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 10 10-12 31
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
ST. MARY’S 16 16 9 2 43
CLEARFIELD 10 10 9 2 31
THREE-POINTERS: ST. MARY’S – 8 Muccio 2, Shaw 2, Eckert 2, Johnson, Schlimm CLEARFIELD – 1 Alt
OFFICIALS: Rusty McCracken, Andrew Sorbera, Alan Price
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 43 – 38 7 – 7
01/22 HUNTINGDON 52 – 54 7 – 8
01/23 ST. MARYS 31 – 43 7 – 9
01/25 @ Philipsburg-Osceola
01/30 TYRONE
02/01 @ Penns Valley
02/05 CENTRAL
02/08 @ Bellefonte
02/12 @ Curwensville