HYDE — A few flurries and blustery temperatures were not keeping the crowd away from the Bison Gymnasium on Wednesday night. The color pink was flowing throughout the crowd and on both sides of the court, as the homestanding Clearfield Lady Bison and the visiting Philipsburg-Osceola Lady Mounties joined together for the annual “Pink Out” to honor breast cancer survivors and to raise money for the cause.
Once the two squads hit the court, it did not take long to see the difference in the teams. The visiting squad continued to rebuild and show some skills through the night, but early miscues proved overwhelming. After 32 minutes, the Lady Bison stood tall in a dominant 50-21 victory to get above the .500-mark on the season.
“We really tried to balance our attack tonight with all of our players. We got some of the kids in the game that normally don’t get in the game,” Lady Bison head coach Missy Helsel said after.
The entire Clearfield roster got a chance to be on the court, but it was the starting five that made the impact early, quickly, and often.
Clearfield got the opening tip and within 10 seconds, Hannah Glunt found an open lane on the left side of the key to put the first bucket in the net. After that, the press defense was quickly getting the Lady Mounties out of sort. In the first minute, the visitors turned the ball over four times. Two minutes into the game, the score hit 10-0 in favor of the Lady Bison, and things went from bad to worse for P-O.
The Mounties kept battling, getting across the midcourt line, but were kept off the scoreboard for nearly seven minutes. When they were getting shots, Clearfield was attacking the basket, pulling down boards and turning the rebounds into points on the opposite end of the court. Clearfield won the battle on the glass, 31-21, for the night. That battle on the boards allowed Clearfield to limit the opposition to a single bucket in the opening quarter, taking a massive 27-2 lead after eight minutes of action.
“We’ve been practicing that, and we have to keep getting better at that every night for us to win games in the Laurel Highlands,” Helsel said. “A couple times on the floor, you could see the ‘Great White Wall’ as I call it, where the girls were closing out. A couple times we did let it slip, but it’s something we’ve improved on.”
Clearfield’s offense went into maintain mode for the second quarter, but it was more of the same as their lead scorer, Mia Helsel, continued her run on the floor as she put up seven of her game-high 21 points in the stanza. The Lady Bison kept on going for the entire quarter, ultimately hitting a 35-4 lead with just a minute and a half remaining to ensure the final 16 minutes would only stop at timeouts and during foul shots.
“We have continued to work on our press defense to get a lot of those turnovers, which we took advantage of,” Helsel said. “We’re going to continue working on that, because it’s a different look for a lot of teams. Our girls are really starting to buy into how we want them to run, jump, trap and be aggressive.”
A fast second half did allow the Lady Mounties a few opportunities to get some quick points on the board, as they outscored Clearfield in the second half, 17-12, and finished strong on both ends of the court.
Clearfield had another make it into double figures, with both Glunt and Sonny Diehl accounting for 10 points each, with Diehl making a double-double effort with 11 rebounds on the night. Helsel led the team with four assists, and just as many steals.
It was a double-up night for the Lady Bison as they also won the junior varsity contest in a come-from-behind effort in the fourth quarter to erase an eight-point deficit, taking the win, 29-27.
The week is not done for the Lady Bison (4-3) as they hit the road on Friday night to face Bellwood-Antis.
SCORE BY QUARTER
Philipsburg-Osceola 2 2 10 7 – 21
Clearfield 27 11 5 7 – 50
Philipsburg-Osceola – 21
Maddie Malinich 1 6-6 8, Kaycie Hughes 0 0-0 0, Lily Warlow 3 0-0 7, Kaelin Wagner 0 0-0 0, Hailey Billings 0 0-0 0, Emily Gustkey 2 0-0 6, Ashlynn Havens 0 0-0 0, Olivia Gallaher 0 0-0 0, Alli Muir 0 0-0 0, Bella Minarchick 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 6 6-6 21.
Clearfield – 50
Sonny Diehl 4 2-3 10, Esme Coffman 0 0-0 0, Eve Helsel 5 0-0 10, Hannah Glunt 3 0-0 7, Alyssa Natoli 0 0-0 0, Mia Helsel 9 0-0 21, Myleigh Hudson 0 0-0 0, Aliza Miller 0 0-0 0, Elia Evilsizor 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 22 2-3 50.
GAME STATISTICS
Philipsburg-Osceola/Clearfield
- Shooting: 6-37/22-55
- Rebounds: 21/31
- Fouls: 3/7
- Turnovers: 18/10
- Three-Point Shots: Warlow, Gustkey-2/Glunt, M. Helsel-3
LADY BISON SCOREBOARD:
Date Opponent Score Record
12/03 CENTRAL 61 – 58 1 – 0
12/06 @ Brookville Tip-Off Tourney cancelled 1 – 0
12/07 @ Brookville Tip-Off Tourney cancelled 1 – 0
12/11 @ Bellefonte 71 – 18 2 – 0
12/13 BISHOP GUILFOYLE 50 – 54 2 – 1
12/18 @ Tyrone 62 – 56 3 – 1
12/20 HOLLIDAYSBURG 50 – 88 3 – 2
12/27 @ Greater Johnstown 43 – 61 3 – 3
01/03 WESTMONT HILLTOP PPD 3 – 3
01/06 @ Huntingdon PPD 3-3
01/08 PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA 50 – 21 4 – 3
01/10 @ Bellwwod-Antis
01/13 PENNS VALLEY
01/17 @ Bedford
01/20 @ Bald Eagle Area
01/23 @ Dubois Central
01/24 @ Northern Clarion
01/27 @ Central
01/28 @ Huntingdon
01/31 RICHLAND
02/03 BELLEFONTE
02/04 WESTMONT HILLTOP
02/06 @ Bishop Guilfoyle
02/10 TYRONE
02/13 CURWENSVILLE
