HYDE – The Clearfield girls basketball team completed the two game season sweep of rival Curwensville Monday night on the Lady Bison home floor, 34-33, in what was perhaps the most exciting game of the year for both teams.
Over the recent Christmas break the Lady Bison beat the Lady Tide in Patton Hall in Curwensville easily, 49-16.
Not on this night though, as the game went down to the final seconds with the Lady Tide still having an opportunity to pick up the win.
Clearfield’s Emma Hipps hit the game winner with the Lady Bison trailing 33-32, and just 18 seconds to go, with a bank shot from 17 feet just inside the arc on the left side.
Clearfield head coach Joe Castagnolo reflected after the battle, saying, “I knew the more Curwensville hung around that they would gain confidence, and they certainly did. Curwensville played their hearts out tonight in what was a really good game to watch.”
Bob Desmett, Lady Tide mentor, commented afterwards, “I am so proud of how we played tonight, and especially after they blew us out at home in the first game. If we would have played like this all along we would be in a different situation than we are now with our win and loss record. Again, I am just so proud of these kids tonight.”
The two teams ended the first quarter all knotted at six apiece as Lady Tide Briana Swindell scored with 10 seconds left in the opening eight minutes to tie the score heading into the second quarter.
Thanks to Clearfield senior Tesa Miller and her six second quarter points, the Lady Bison outscored Curwensville 11-7 to take a 17-13 halftime lead.
Curwensville picked up only two field goals in the third, both by sophomore Alyssa Bakaysa, but still managed to win the period 9-7 and cut the Lady Bison margin to just two tallies, 24-22, heading into the final frame.
Clearfield twice had a seven point edge in the third period, 23-16 and 24-17, only to see the Lady Tide score the final five points of the period to cut into Clearfield’s lead.
The fourth quarter had the lead change hands four times with Lady Tide managing to bolt in front by five points, 33-28, with 2:22 left on the Bison Gym clock.
Curwensville, however, would not add another point to its total as the Lady Bison went on a 6-0 run to end the game and pick up the hard fought victory. Miller and Hipps each scored three points in the 6-0 run with Hipps, as stated earlier, hitting the game winner with approximately 18 seconds to play.
The Lady Tide called its final timeout with eight ticks left, and then on the inbounds pass got the ball to freshman Skylar Pentz. Pentz, with a great effort, got inside the paint and took the last shot which just hit short on the right side of the basket.
Castagnolo added, “We came out a little flat tonight, and perhaps somewhat over confident, but in the end the girls just refused to lose.”
Bakaysa, who fouled out in the latter minutes of the fourth quarter, paced the Lady Tide with 10 points.
Hipps led the Lady Bison offense with a game high 11 points.
Both teams struggled from the foul line with Curwensville hitting 10 of 20, while Clearfield was just 8 of 21.
With the triumph Clearfield is now 5-13 on the season, while Curwensville drops to 3-12.
Clearfield was also victorious in the junior varsity game, defeating the Lady Tide by a score of 37-19. High scorers in the game for the Lady Bison were Alaina Fedder and Lauryn Kitchen each with eight points while Alyssa Bakaysa had seven for Curwensville.
Curwensville travels to Philipsburg-Osceola on Thursday to battle the Lady Mounties. The Lady Tide defeated P-O in mid-December, in Curwensville, 47-24. NOTE: THERE WILL BE NO JUNIOR VARSITY GAME WITH THE VARSITY CONTEST STARTING AT 6:30 PM.
Listen to the Curwensville-Philipsburg-Osceola game on WOKW-FM, 102.9, starting with the pre-game show at 6:15 pm.
The Lady Bison are right back in action on Tuesday evening with a road trip to Tyrone. The Lady Golden Eagles knocked off Clearfield earlier this season, in Clearfield, 61-44 in the Mountain League . Junior varsity tips off at 6 pm with the varsity to immediately follow.
CURWENSVILLE – 33
Hannah Condon 2 3-6 7, Tarah Jacobson 0 3-8 3, Alyssa Bakaysa 5 0-0 10, Briana Swindell 2 0-0 4, Kyra Henry 2 2-4 7, Austyn Guiher 0 0-0 0, Skylar Pentz 0 2-2 2, TOTALS – 11 10-20 33
CLEARFIELD – 34
Megan Durandetta 0 0-0 0, Emma Hipps 4 3-10 11, Kylie Van Tassel 1 0-1 2, Olivia Bender 1 1-2 3, Tesa Miller 3 3-6 9, Abby Ryan 0 0-0 0, McLain Alt 2 0-0 4, Riley Ryen 2 0-0 4, Alaina Fedder 0 1-2 1, TOTALS – 13 8-21 34
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
CURWENSVILLE 6 7 9 11 33
CLEARFIELD 6 11 7 10 34
THREE-POINTERS: CURWENSVILLE – 1 Henry CLEARFIELD – NONE
OFFICIALS: Hunter Rodgers, Don Wagner, Eugene Parker