HYDE – The calendar says it’s the middle of January, but to the Clearfield Lady Bison basketball team it must seem like it’s the middle of August and the dog days of summer.
The Lady Bisons held a 20-10 lead over visiting Elk County Catholic (ECC) Wednesday night with 5:40 remaining in the second period. Then, the drought.
Clearfield’s next point came at the 4:36 mark of the third period. A scoreless drought that lasted 9 minutes and 4 seconds which led to the Lady Crusaders picking up a 39-36 win in District 9 league action.
Clearfield coach Joey Castagnolo said after the tough loss, “I’m disappointed for the kids, they truly played their hearts out tonight. They never quit. But we can’t make the mental mistakes like we did against a good team like Elk County. You just can’t give them all those chances.”
Jayme Ryan got things rolling for Clearfield hitting a three pointer with less than ten seconds played in the opening period as the Bisons, using timely and unselfish passing, moved out to a 13-8 margin after the first eight minutes.
Lady Bison Amber Byerly tallied six of her eleven points in the first frame to pace the Clearfield offense early on.
Emily Detsch, Elk County Catholic’s leading scorer, was held without a point in the opening stanza. However, the senior guard would heat up the gym the rest of the way.
As mentioned, the Lady Bisons would jump out to a ten point lead (20-10) with 5:40 left in the half. Then an unseen lid clamped down on Clearfield’s hoop and the drought was on… and on.. and on.
The Bisons did however manage to go into the half up 20-18 even though they hadn’t scored in a long, long time.
Detsch, who pumped in 22 to lead all scorers, had eight second quarter points, six more in the third and eight more in the fourth to fuel the Lady Crusader attack. Detsch was the only ECC player to hit a field goal in the second half until teammate Lexie Meholic scored midway through the final quarter.
Even though Clearfield didn’t score until the 4:36 mark of the third period they maintained a 27-25 margin going into the closing eight minutes thanks to a three pointer by Ryan with two minutes to go in the third.
Ryan hit her third and final trey of the evening early in the fourth period to push the Clearfield margin to 30-25. Unfortunately it didn’t last long.
Detsch took over in the fourth, scoring eight points, as ECC outscored Clearfield 14-9 to pull out the 11th win of the year with only one loss for the Crusaders.
ECC was 9 of 10 from the free throw line while Clearfield struggled, going just 2 of 8.
Castagnolo then added, “ I am very pleased that we did play excellent team defense. Elk County is a very well coached team though. They just took care of the ball at the end to seal the win”
The Clearfield junior varsity lost in the opening game to Elk County Catholic 35-27. The Lady Bison junior varsity is now 5-5 on the year.
It doesn’t get any easier for the Lady Bisons, now 7-3 overall and 2-2 in District 9 league play, as on Friday they venture to St. Marys to challenge the Lady Flying Dutch. Junior Varsity action begins at 6 pm with the varsity contest to immediately follow.
View photos of the game at: http://www.ladybisonsports.org/lbsbball012010.html
ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC – Abby Petrosky 0 0-0 0, Lexie Meholic 2 2-2 6, Emily Detsch 9 4-4 22, Emily Gregory 0 0-0 0, Karly Carnovale 2 0-0 4, Jena Struble 1 0-0 2, Taylor Frank 1 3-4 5, Ellie Petrosky 0 0-0 0, Dani Cassels 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 15 9-10 39
CLEARFIELD – Jayme Ryan 3 0-0 9, Gwenn Porter 2 1-4 6, Madison Sopic 1 0-0 2, Elizabeth Peters 1 0-0 2, Amber Byerly 5 1-4 11, Breanna Peters 2 0-0 4, Lori Zalno 1 0-0 2, Angela Moore 0 0-0 0, Kristen Butler 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 15 2-8 36
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 8 10 7 14 39
CLEARFIELD 13 7 7 9 36
THREE-POINTERS: ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC – NONE CLEARFIELD – 4 Ryan 3, Porter
OFFICIALS: Ken Knepp, Bud Brennan, George Schneider
