|
|
Clearfield girls nipped by Elk Co. Catholic
Thursday, January 21, 2010
By Rich Murawski Assistant Sports Editor
HYDE - The Clearfield girls basketball team had state-ranked Elk County Catholic on the ropes for much of Wednesday night's game at Arthur J. Weiss Gymnasium. But the Lady Bisons just couldn't seem to land the knockout punch.
Clearfield led the entire first-half by as many as 10, and it was out in front for much of the fourth quarter. When Gwenn Porter's bank-shot 3-pointer fell with 4:00 left in the game, Clearfield held a 33-27 advantage.
But a plethora of missed layups and peep shots came back to haunt the Lady Bisons as ECC, which was 9-of-60 from the field midway through the fourth finished the game on a 12-3 run to snatch a 39-36 decision away from Clearfield.
"We're a veteran team," Clearfield head coach Joey Castagnolo said. "We should never have missed shots like that. We should be playing with confidence. What you saw tonight was a lack of confidence, and I am extremely disappointed.
"That game was ours to win and we gave it away. I hate to say that, but we have to realize that we're all seniors and someone needs to step up."
After Porter's 3-pointer gave the Lady Bisons a six-point lead, ECC shook off its 15 percent from the field shooting in the previous 3-and-a-half quarters to drill six of its last seven shots.
Emily Detsch hit three of those six buckets and was key in keeping the Lady Crusaders within striking distance all game long. Detsch had a game-high 22 points and added 13 rebounds.
"Detsch took over," Castagnolo said. "She did what a senior should do."
Clearfield sprinted out to a 7-0 lead to start the game. Jayme Ryan drilled a 3-pointer on Clearfield's first trip down the floor and Amber Byerly connected on a pair of inside buckets off Madison Sopic feeds to give the Lady Bisons loads of early momentum.
"That (Ryan's trey) was very important," Castagnolo said. "That gives her confidence when she hits early. And the inside shot was there all night long. We're a powerful inside team ... we look inside. But we have to convert."
The Lady Crusaders cut the deficit to 9-6, but Clearfield ended the first quarter ahead, 13-8, and extended the advantage to 20-10 with 4:30 left in the second quarter.
A Lori Zalno basket off a Porter pass gave Clearfield the 10-point lead and prompted ECC head coach Ken Pistner to call a timeout.
The timeout was obviously well-used as the Lady Crusaders went on an 8-0 run to end the half. In fact, Clearfield did not score another point from the 4:30 mark in the second quarter until the 4:29 mark in the third, when Breanna Peters broke the scoring slump with a layup that knotted the score at 22-22.
"They played excellent defense at that stage in the game," Castagnolo said. "And we didn't capitalize on any of our opportunities."
The Lady Bisons got a putback shot from Byerly and a 3-pointer from Ryan and closed the third quarter with a 27-25 lead. Byerly finished the contest with a game-high 15 rebounds.
Ryan drilled another trey early in the fourth quarter and, after an ECC bucket, Porter drained her 3-pointer to give Clearfield the 33-27 advantage.
"After Gwenn's 3-pointer, I thought we just needed to go down and play good defense and get a stop, and we would slow the game down," Castagnolo said. "But they scored and then we came down the floor and had an open shot and I didn't want to slow it down at that point. But we missed the shot."
After a 6-for-12 first quarter, Clearfield connected on just nine of its 40 shots over the final three quarters. The Lady Bisons ended with a shooting percentage of 28.8. ECC shot 22 percent from the floor.
"We played really well defensively," Castagnolo said. "But only scoring 36 when we average 58 obviously hurt us."
Byerly led Clearfield with 11 points, while Ryan netted nine and Porter scored six. Porter added six rebounds and three assists. Madison Sopic was held to two points, but she grabbed four boards and dished out five assists.
Lexie Meholic scored six points and grabbed 10 rebounds for ECC, which improved to 11-1 overall and 5-0 in the D-9 League.
Clearfield dipped to 7-3 overall and 2-2 in league play.
ECC won the jayvee game, 35-27. Rachel Thompson scored eight for the Lady Bisons, who fell to 5-5 on the season.
Clearfield is back in action Friday at St. Marys. Elk County Catholic-39
Meholic 2 2-2 6, A. Petrosky 0 0-0 0, Detsch 9 4-4 22, Gregory 0 0-0 0, Carnovale 2 0-0 4, Frank 1 3-5 5, Struble 1 0-0 2, E. Petrosky 0 0-0 0, Cassels 0 0-0 0. Totals: 15 9-10 39.
Clearfield-36
Ryan 3 0-0 9, Byerly 5 1-4 11, Sopic 1 0-0 2, Porter 2 1-4 6, E. Peters 1 0-0 2, Moore 0 0-0 0, B. Peters 2 0-0 4, Butler 0 0-0 0, Zalno 1 0-0 2. Totals: 15 2-8 36.
Three-pointers: Ryan 3, Porter.
|  |
|
|
|
