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Porter's fourth-quarter layup leads Clearfield girls to victory over Punxsy
Thursday, February 18, 2010
By Rich Murawski Assistant Sports Editor
HYDE - After Hannah Neal drilled a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter to give Punxsutawney a 28-27 lead over Clearfield, the Lady Chucks employed a slow-down offense in the hopes of limiting the Lady Bisons' chances down the stretch.
But after milking over three minutes off the clock, the Lady Chucks paid for their strategy as Clearfield's Gwenn Porter stole the ball, dribbled the length of the floor and hit an uncontested layup to give the Lady Bisons a 29-28 lead.
Porter later sunk a pair of free throws and Clearfield came away with a 31-28 win Wednesday evening at Arthur J. Weiss Gymnasium.
Punxsutawney got the ball with 4:58 left in the fourth quarter and passed the ball around the perimeter and even looked inside a few times in the sequence. After Lady Chuck head coach Randy Reitz called a timeout, they continued to play keep away and got fouled a few times as well.
Then Porter was in the right place at the right time, picking up a loose ball and dribbling coast-to-coast for the score, bringing the Clearfield faithful to their feet.
"We just weren't trapping when they picked up their dribble," Clearfield head coach Joey Castagnolo said. "(Reitz) called the timeout and I said, ‘girls, now you overplay them. You don't have to foul. There's still 2:53 left. Just overplay. They can't freeze it that long.' And Gwenn just seized the moment."
"We knew they were going to try and stall, and he (Castagnolo) just said to go out and gamble a little bit, and just play tough. It finally paid off in the corner. The girl fumbled the ball, and I got to it and got the layup."
Porter made the shot with 1:51 to go, and Punxsutawney went back up the court and missed a shot.
The Lady Bisons then used a similar tactic as Punxsy did early in the quarter, passing the ball around the perimeter until the Lady Chucks finally started fouling. By the time they picked up their seventh foul to put Clearfield on the line, only 11 seconds remained in the game.
"We played their tempo," Castagnolo said. "We've been working on our half-court offense and we showed tonight that if someone wants to slow us down, we can play that style."
Porter hit both free throws to give Clearfield the 31-28 lead,
"I just tried to stay calm and just kept thinking it's just like another shot at practice," Porter said of her nerveracking free throws.
The Lady Chucks had one last chance to tie, but the Lady Bisons played great defense as they had most of the game. The best Punxsy could do was get a desperation shot off from several feet behind the arc as the final buzzer sounded.
The shot clanked off the left side of the rim and the celebration was on at Arthur J. Weiss Gymnasium.
"This is going to be a big momentum booster for us," Porter said. "And this being our last home game, we wanted to win really bad. Punxsy has always been our rival, so it's a great feeling."
Punxsutawney led 14-7 after one quarter as the outside shot of Jenna Reitz and the inside game of Shawnna Crago gave the Lady Bisons fits early.
Reitz drilled a pair of NBA-range 3-pointers and Crago hit two buckets in the paint, hit a pair of free throws and grabbed six rebounds.
Neal gave Punxsutawney a 17-7 lead a minute into the second quarter with the first of her two treys, prompting Castagnolo to call a timeout.
"I told the girls, ‘This is it. We can't let them slip away any more. This is the time. We have to start playing.'" Castagnolo said. "We couldn't let them get up more than 10. They would have frozen the ball against us."
From that point on, the Clearfield defense came alive. The Lady Bisons allowed the Lady Chucks to score just 11 points over the final 23 minutes of play. And Clearfield steadily chipped away at the Punxsy lead and finally caught them with 1:39 to go in the third on a Madison Sopic free throw.
After Sopic tied the game at 25-25, Amber Byerly blocked a Crago shot and Sopic picked the ball up and Clearfield was off on a fast break. The break ended when Byerly found a wide-open Elizabeth Peters, who hit a jumper to give Clearfield a 27-25 lead at the end of the third. It was the Lady Bisons first lead of the game.
Peters hit two big field goals in the third quarter after a cold-shooting first half. She also pulled down five rebounds in the contest.
"I think I may have put too much pressure on her saying, ‘Eli, you have to make that shot.'" Castagnolo said. "She got too frustrated, so I took her out and rested her. At halftime, I told her that the problem was she was one step out of her range."
In the fourth, Neal hit the 3-pointer to put Punxsy back in front, setting up Porter's game-ending heroics.
"We executed perfectly," Castagnolo said. "That whole fourth we played excellent defense ... they only scored seven points the whole second half. I'm just so proud of our defense. I'm really happy for the kids. We needed this one. We just beat the hottest team in District 9.
"We executed both ends of the court. All five seniors stepped up. That's our most complete game. This was big for momentum and confidence. We can play with that team."
Porter led Clearfield with eight points and added two assists and two steals. Byerly netted six points and pulled down nine rebounds.
Crago led the Lady Chucks in points (10) and rebounds (10).
Clearfield improved to 14-6 overall and 6-5 in the D-9 League. Punxsy fell to 7-4 in league play.
The Lady Chucks won the junior varsity game, 42-40. Clearfield trailed, 28-9 at the half, but stormed back to get as close as 41-40 before dropping the decision. Breanna Peters scored 13 in the loss.
Clearfield is back in action tonight at Elk County Catholic in another big D-9 League game. The Lady Bisons still have a chance at hosting a first-round district playoff game, but need to beat ECC and have Bradford top Punxsutawney. Punxsutawney-28
Reitz 2 0-0 6, Neal 2 0-0 6, Fye 1 0-1 2, Crago 4 2-2 10, McMully 2 0-0 4. Totals: 11 2-3 28.
Clearfield-31
E.Peters 2 0-0 4, Byerly 2 2-3 6, Porter 2 4-5 8, Sopic 3 1-2 7, Ryan 2 0-0 6, B. Peters 0 0-0 0, Moore 0 0-0 0, Ambuski 0 0-0 0. Totals: 11 7-10 31.
Three-pointers: Reitz 2, Neal 2; Ryan 2.
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