ST. MARYS – Elk County Catholic (ECC) advanced to the Allegheny Mountain League (AML) girls championship game with a convincing and sound beating of a short-handed Curwensville squad Friday night in St. Marys, 58-31, in the semifinals.
Playing without leading rebounder Katrina Seaburn, the Crusaders proved to be too much for the Lady Tide to handle. Seaburn averaged a double-double during the regular season in points and rebounds.
During the regular season the two teams played one game, also in St. Marys, which was won by ECC, 53-38.
This time around a cold spell in the second quarter doomed the Lady Tide after a 15-9 edge in the first eight minutes went to the Lady Crusaders.
Elk County Catholic pitched a shutout in the second period, 18-0, to leave no doubt that it would be playing Saturday night for the Allegheny Mountain League Title.
With the score tied at 2-2 in the opening stanza, the Lady Crusaders went on a 9-0 run to take an 11-2 lead before Lady Tide sophomore, Ciara Strickland hit a bucket to slow down ECC.
Rebecca Johnson drew Curwensville as close as it would come the rest of the night as the senior drained a three pointer with only 37 seconds left on the clock in the first.
Little did the Lady Tide squad and the faithful fans that journeyed to St. Marys know that it would be the last point they would score until Tiffany Carter made two free throws with 6:42 remaining in the third quarter and the game basically decided. The two free throws by the senior Carter still had ECC way out in front, 37-11.
To top the 9-0 run that the Crusaders had in the first period, they added a 24-0 run from the end of the opening frame until Carter hit the two charity tosses, as mentioned, in the third.
Elk County Catholic kept the margin well over 20 the rest of the way to advance to the AML Championship to play Kane, a 49-39 winner over DuBois Central Catholic in the other AML semi-final game on Friday night.
Strickland had 16 to pace the Lady Tide offense, while Taylor DaCanal led the Lady Crusaders with 10.
Lady Tide head coach Rusty McCracken said afterwards, “We knew that this would be a tough game for us, especially playing on this court, which is always difficult. And getting down like we did in the second quarter is really hard to come back from.”
Then the Curwensville coach said, “We started to miss a lot of shots and it may be due to the fact that our legs just got tired. It’s not an excuse at all, but the girls have played 10 games over the past 15 days. That’s a lot of basketball for anyone.”
The boys and girls AML championship battles will be played Saturday at St. Marys Area High School, with the girls game starting at 6 pm and the boys title contest starting at 7:30 pm.
Next up for the Lady Tide, now 9-14, will be a trip to the District 9 AA playoffs. Their opponent, along with the date and time, will be announced this weekend by the District 9 basketball committee.
CURWENSVILLE — 31
Heather Thorp 0 1-2 1, Rebecca Johnson 1 2-2 5, Tierra Shope 0 0-0 0, Ciara Strickland 6 3-4 16, Tiffany Carter 1 3-6 5, Bailey Dale 0 0-0 0, Kealy Wassil 1 0-0 2, Shauna Guy 0 0-0 0, Kayli Sedgwick, 0 0-0 0, Abby Dugo 1 0-0 2, TOTALS – 10 9-14 31.
ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC — 58
Julie Sweeney 3 2-2 8, Taylor DaCanal 4 2-2 10, Erin Petrosky 3 1-2 7, Kristy Hanes 3 0-0 8, Michelle Imbrogno 1 0-0 2, Macy Neureiter 1 2-2 4, Kirstie Wehler 1 0-0 2, Maria Scacchitti 2 0-0 4, Kayla Weis 0 0-0 0, Step Zimmerman 0 0-0 0, Hayley DaCanal 2 0-0 4, Chiara Genevro 2 1-2 5, Michaela Cashmer 1 2-2 4, TOTALS – 23 10-12 58.
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
CURWENSVILLE 9 0 14 8 31
ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 15 18 12 13 58
THREE-POINTERS: CURWENSVILLE – 2 Johnson, Strickland ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC – 2 Hanes 2
OFFICIALS: Marvin Martell, Lee Martell, Jerry Thornton
Lady Tide Scoreboard:
Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
12/10 | MO VALLEY | 52 – 16 | 1 – 0 |
12/11 | BROCKWAY | 57 – 32 | 2 – 0 |
12/14 | @ Ridgway | 70 – 28 | 3 – 0 |
12/19 | HARMONY | 60 – 15 | 4 – 0 |
12/21 | @ Kane | ppd. | 4 – 0 |
12/27 | @ Clearfield | 52 – 60 | 4 – 1 |
01/02 | @ Kane | 31 – 59 | 4 – 2 |
01/04 | DUBOIS CENTRAL | 49 – 55 | 4 – 3 |
01/08 | @ Johnsonburg | 33 – 48 | 4 – 4 |
01/10 | @ Harmony | 66 – 28 | 5 – 4 |
01/16 | @ Elk County | 38 – 53 | 5 – 5 |
01/18 | WEST BRANCH | 30 – 51 | 5 – 6 |
01/21 | @ Glendale | 47 – 50 | 5 – 7 |
01/22 | RIDGWAY | 58 – 29 | 6 – 7 |
01/25 | @ Brockway | ppd. | 6 – 7 |
01/28 | @ DuBois Central | ppd. | 6 – 7 |
02/01 | JOHNSONBURG | 35 – 74 | 6 – 8 |
02/02 | @ DuBois Central | 34 – 37 | 6 – 9 |
02/04 | GLENDALE | 46 – 39 | 7 – 9 |
02/05 | @ Sheffield | 56 – 38 | 8 – 9 |
02/07 | @ Brockway | 31 – 57 | 8 – 10 |
02/08 | KANE | ppd. | 8 – 10 |
02/09 | KANE | 35 – 40 | 8 – 11 |
02/11 | @ Mo Valley | 50 – 25 | 9 – 11 |
02/13 | @ West Branch | 31 – 64 | 9 – 12 |
02/14 | CLEARFIELD | 30 – 57 | 9 – 13 |
02/15 | AML Playoffs | ||
vs. Elk County Catholic | 31 – 58 | 9 – 14 | |
District 9 Playoffs | |||
vs. TBD |