BELLEFONTE – Sometimes a do over can make all the difference in the world. But for the Clearfield girls basketball team a do over just isn’t possible.
A furious second half rally by the Lady Bison Friday night at Bellefonte fell just two points shy in a 46-44 Mountain League game loss to the Lady Red Raiders..
Clearfield head coach Joey Castagnolo, put it best afterwards, saying, “ What an effort by these girls. We just had a great effort the entire game. These kids played their little hearts out tonight in a tough loss.”
The do over would have been the first half, or more specifically the first frame, where the Lady Bison put up just three points to fall behind 14-3 after one quarter. Unofficially Clearfield had nine turnovers in the first eight minutes of action.
Things got a little better in the second for Clearfield, although being outscored 14-11 to get doubled up going into the intermission trailing 28-14.
At the 3:44 point of the second quarter Bellefonte took its biggest lead at 26-7 and things just didn’t look all that bright for the Lady Bison going forward.
Clearfield senior Alayna Ryan, who paced all scorers on the night with 28 points, hit a bucket with 5:50 to play in the third quarter to pull the Lady Bison to within eight at 30-22.
Trailing by 10 heading into the final period, 38-28, the Lady Bison went to work with defense and making sure the ball was in Ryan’s hands as much as possible.
With the ball in the hands of the lone Clearfield senior, Ryan scored 11 of the 16 points in the fourth to keep the dream of a huge comeback alive.
Freshman Emma Hipps cut the Bellefonte margin to 42-35 with a basket at the 3:10 point of the fourth frame.
Then Ryan hit back to back field goals to pull Clearfield to within four at 43-39.
And the excitement was just starting to build, as again it was Ryan stepping up.
With 1:11 to play Ryan hit a lay-up and drew the foul, which she made, and suddenly it was Bellefonte by one, 43-42.
After a Lady Red Raider free throw, Ryan tied it all up at 44-44 with another basket and 50 seconds left.
Bellefonte’s Maddie Steiner actually had the game winning free throw with 19 seconds to play that made it
45-44 Lady Raiders with another free throw two seconds later by Sara DeHaas that set the final at 46-44.
Clearfield is now 8-13 on the season and Bellefonte checks in with the same 8-13 mark.
Castagnolo commented, “We had a miserable first quarter, scoring only three points along with a bad first half at the free throw line. And what can you say about Ryan (Alayna). She took control of the game in the fourth and brought us back with a chance to pull out the comeback. But every Mountain League game is a battle, “
Mallorie Smith was high scorer for Bellefonte with 15.
Each squad was 10 of 19 from the charity stripe.
In junior varsity action, the Lady Bison defeated the Lady Red Raiders by a score of 34-30. High scorers for Clearfield were Kylie Van Tassel with 13 and Lauryn Kitchen adding 11.
The Lady Bison have one more regular season game, on Tuesday night, at Curwensville against the Lady Tide. Junior varsity action begins at 6 pm with the varsity to immediately follow.
Listen to the Clearfield-Curwensville girls game on WOKW-FM, 102.9, with the pre-game show starting at approximately 7:15 pm.
CLEARFIELD – 44
Megan Durandetta 1 0-0 3, Emma Hipps 3 1-1 8, Alayna Ryan 11 6-9 28, Olivia Bender 0 0-0 0, Tessa Miller 1 1-4 3, Adrian Rowles 0 1-2 1, Paige Rhine 0 1-2 1, Kylie Van Tassel 0 0-0 0, McLain Alt 0 0-1 0, TOTALS – 16 10-19 44
BELLEFONTE – 46
Maddie Steiner 2 2-4 6, Mallorie Smith 5 3-9 15, Mia Johnson 3 0-0 6, Maddie Tice 2 4-4 8, Sara DeHaas
3 1-2 7, Lily Gardner 0 0-0 0, Bella Corman 1 0-0 2, Hanna Lauck 1 0-0 2, Emmalee Neff 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 17 10-19 46
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
CLEARFIELD 3 11 14 16 44
BELLEFONTE 14 14 10 8 46
THREE-POINTERS: CLEARFIELD – 2 Durandetta, Hipps BELLEFONTE – 2 Smith 2
OFFICIALS: Dennis Long, Kyle Wright, Jordan Forster
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 45 – 56 7 – 10
01/30 TYRONE ppd. 7 – 10
02/01 @ Penns Valley 24 – 55 7 – 11
02/05 CENTRAL 32 – 43 7 – 12
02/06 TYRONE 59 – 51 8 – 12
02/08 @ Bellefonte 44 – 46 8 – 13
02/12 @ Curwensville
