HYDE – The Clearfield girls basketball team jumped out to an 18-0 lead to start the first quarter Thursday night against rival Curwensville, then watched the Lady Tide come back in the third and fourth quarters before a late Clearfield run at the end of the contest to come away with a 60-36 victory on the Lady Bison home floor.
With the win, Clearfield pulls even on the season at 4-4, while the Lady Tide slip to 1-4.
The Lady Bison 18-0 start was fueled by senior Alayna Ryan with eight points and sophomore Megan Durandetta with six tallies on two three pointers before Lady Tide senior Madison Weber stopped the Bison run with a basket and free throw at the 2:20 point of the first eight minutes.
Curwensville head coach Bob Desmett said afterwards, “That first half killed us tonight. You can’t let a team like Clearfield come out early and get a big lead on you.”
The Lady Tide did win the second and third quarters, 20-17 combined, but it wasn‘t enough as Clearfield doubled the Tide in the final frame 23-11 to earn the win on the “Bob E. Day Classic” night.
The night was given in honor of long time announcer Bob E. Day who passed away in October of this year.
Clearfield coach Joe Castagnolo talked about the quick lead, “Actually, I thought we played a sloppy first half and I took the press off too soon after we got the early big lead. Curwensville is a feisty team and they just kept coming at us. But I did think, for the most part, we played a fairly flawless second half.”
For Desmett, he liked the second half a lot better than the first 16 minutes, saying, “We played decent in the second half. The kids didn’t quit and kept trying. We just couldn’t find any consistency tonight.”
Ryan paced the Clearfield offense with 25 points, followed by junior Faith Ogden with 13, and Tessa Miller, another junior, who had a double-double on the evening, adding 10 points.
Weber led the Lady Tide with 20 points to keep her season average at 20 points per game.
Clearfield had an easy time in the junior varsity game in defeating the Lady Tide 56-11.
The Lady Tide return to the court with a home game on Friday January 4 against the Lady Rovers of Brockway with the junior varsity game starting at 6 pm and the varsity contest tipping off immediately after.
Clearfield also returns to the hardwood on the same night with an away game at Punxsutawney. Junior varsity action begins at 6 pm followed immediately by the varsity battle.
CURWENSVILLE – 36
Hannah Condon 0 3-4 3, Tarah Jacobson 2 1-2 5, Kaitltyn McCracken 0 0-0 0, Brittney Wagner 1 0-0 2, Madison Weber 8 2-3 20, Briana Swindell 2 0-0 6, Jordan Witherite 0 0-0 0, Alyssa Bakaysa 0 0-1 0, Kyra Henry 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 13 6-10 36
CLEARFIELD – 60
Megan Durandetta 2 0-0 6, Faith Ogden 6 0-0 13, Emma Hipps 2 0-0 4, Alayna Ryan 12 1-2 25, Tessa Miller 5 0-0 10, Kylie Van Tassel 1 0-0 2, Adrian Rowles 0 0-0 0, McLain Alt 0 0-0 0, Paige Rhine 0 0-0 0, Olivia Bender 0 0-0 0
TOTALS – 28 1-2 60
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
CURWENSVILLE 5 8 12 11 36
CLEARFIELD 20 6 11 23 60
THREE-POINTERS: CURWENSVILLE – 4 Weber 2, Swindell 2 CLEARFIELD – 3 Durandetta 2, Ogden
OFFICIALS: William Wolf, Alan Price, Richards Dickinson
