HYDE — Fueled by a dominating victory the night before, the Lady Bison were itching to be back on the court, seeing if that feeling could carry over into the next game. Clearfield welcomed the Lady Cardinals from DuBois Central Catholic on Tuesday evening, with the home crowd once again ready for a battle on the hardwood.
Like the night before, Clearfield came out quick, but at the same time so did the visitors. The home squad saw an early deficit, but that victorious feeling from the night before was one the team did not want to relinquish. A solid outing in the final three quarters, complete with intelligent ball handling, good looks, and key plays on the boards and passes led Clearfield to a 65-51 triumph, the team’s first back-to-back victories since late December.
“We knew they (D.C.C.) were going to come out quick. They’re a good team. Our girls got it together in the second half and played some really nice basketball,” Clearfield head coach Missy Helsel said afterwards. “I saw a lot of nice things out of them, between rebounding, the nice passes they were dishing. They all did an absolutely fantastic job tonight.”
The first eight minutes, although they weren’t bad for Clearfield, were better for the visitors. Helsel said the goal was to try and defend Kayley Risser as best they could to keep the game close, but soon they saw how talented the junior was. In the first quarter, she accounted for half the Cardinals’ 16 points, while also having some big rebounds to keep Clearfield off the board. After one, Clearfield faced a 16-7 gap.
At one point into the second quarter, Clearfield found itself down by nine points, but was not yielding a lot of big plays to the opposition.
Suddenly, in a flash, things changed. A couple possessions gave some wide open looks on either side of the key for Lauryn Kitchen and Hannah Glunt. The senior and the freshmen, respectively, each drained a three-point shot to cut the lead down to just three points. Although at a few points the Lady Cardinals stretched the lead back out, the game never got out of reach. Had it not been for a late basket by Lexi Berto, the game would have been tied heading into the locker room. Instead, Clearfield faced a 27-25 gap, but were also getting the ball to open the third quarter.
Helsel felt those two deep shots changed the course of the game for her squad.
“Those are the kind of shots we needed. For Hannah to step up, plus Lauryn off the bench, they provided a lot of steam for us,” she said.
Coming out of the locker room, the play that came from the Lady Bison on the floor could only be described as unselfish. There was not one player trying to do everything on their own, but instead looked for the right time to make a change, find the open player, and then get the shot off. The play of Cayleigh Walker and Riley Ryen in the quarter changed everything as the duo would combine for 13 points, while also getting four steals between the two of them.
That eased the pressure on others like Emma Hipps, who would finish the night with a team-high 19 points, and turn the focus on trying to guard an entire team instead of one player. Clearfield put up 22 points in the third quarter, while holding the Lady Cardinals to just 12, to take a three-possession lead into the final quarter.
Clearfield finished with four of its five starters in double figures. Along with Hipps, Walker (18), Glunt (11) and Ryen (10) all had strong outings. Glunt was pulled from the game just short of a double-double, finishing with nine rebounds, three assists and four steals. Ryen led the team with five assists, and Alayna Winters also added in four steals of her own.
The production that Helsel has seen the last few weeks from her team, even in a losing effort, has looked a lot different than early in the season. When looking at the stats, she could see how the team has taken to heart what she has been teaching.
“That’s what we’ve been working towards all along. We’ve been working on this the entire season, working on our defense, getting better at rebounding, just key things that we’ve focused on at each practice to get these girls to the next level,” Helsel said. “They really are taking to it, working together and coming together as a team.
“That second half was absolutely fantastic from all of them. We knew D.C.C. was going to be a tough team, and we look forward to playing them, and doing so over the next several years.”
DuBois Central Catholic saw Risser have her own big night, finishing her own double-double with a game-high 27 points plus 10 rebounds, while Faith Jacob also had a double-double, dropping 10 points and 10 rebounds. But, untimely turnovers cost them late in the contest, as Jacob had to play most of the final quarter with four fouls, keeping her from being as aggressive on defense as she was early in the game.
Clearfield did drop the opening junior varsity contest, 44-24.
With only five games remaining on the docket, Helsel sees an opportunity for the team to finish the season with a winning record, giving the first-year coach a positive start to her tenure at the helm following the retirement of long-time coach Joey Castagnolo. But Helsel wasn’t thinking about herself, but instead could see the potential for the team to win out, and maybe do more.
“We are looking for a win in every game for the remainder of the season. From day one, when we played in the Brookville tip-off tournament, they came back and battled, I knew that was the type of team we were going to have,” she said. “They have shown up in nearly every game this season, battling back even if we were down 10 or 12 points, sometimes even down 20, and we’d come back. That is the type of team they are.”
Clearfield (7-10) gets a day to rest up before going back into a four-game stretch of Mountain League games. That starts on Thursday when they host Huntingdon.
SCORE BY QUARTER
D.C. Catholic 16 11 12 12 – 51
Clearfield 7 18 22 18 – 65
Dubois Central Catholic – 51
Jessy Frank 2 0-0 4, Kayley Risser 10 7-9 27, Faith Jacob 3 4-6 10, Rose Whipple 0 0-0 0, Lexi Berto 3 0-0 8, Lauren Davidson 0 0-0 0, Marina Hanes 0 0-0 0, Emma Elensky 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 19 11-15 51.
Clearfield – 65
Emma Hipps 8 3-3 19, Lauren Kitchen 1 0-0 3, McKenna Lanager 0 0-0 0, Riley Ryen 2 5-6 10, Cayleigh Walker 7 4-6 18, Alayna Winters 2 0-0 4, Hannah Glunt 3 1-2 11. TOTALS 23 13-17 65.
GAME STATISTICS
D.C. Catholic/Clearfield
Shooting: 19-69/23-60
Rebounds: 35/38
Fouls: 13/12
Turnovers: 20/15
Three-Point Shots: Berto-2/Kitchen, Ryen, Glunt-2