CURWENSVILLE — Curwensville coupled a strong defensive effort with ice-cold shooting by Moniteau to zoom into a 21-0 lead after 12 minutes and went on to triumph 56-46 in District 9 Class AA girls quarterfinal action Tuesday night in Patton Hall.
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A partisan crowd saw Dani Struble, who wound up on the floor a half dozen times on drives to the basket, pump in 27 points and Jackie White work the low post for 15 as the second-seeded Lady Tide reached the 20-win plateau in its 25th game and, more importantly, advanced to the 9-AA semifinals for the second time in three years.
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Coach Vic Gearhart\’s team will travel to Clarion University Thursday for a 6 p.m. tip-off against No. 3 seed Redbank Valley (16-9), which ousted Cranberry 55-40.
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Moniteau\’s man-to-man defense gave Curwensville some problems at times, especially in the early going, but White and Struble came up with the answers by taking the ball to the hoop. White\’s drive with a minute gone produced the only points until she swished two free throws with 5:28 left in the first period. Her fast-break layup made it 6-0. Then, Struble added a jumper and two driving layups for a 12-0 advantage after the first quarter, in which the Lady Warriors missed 10 shots and had eight turnovers.
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Those totals were 16 shots and nine turnovers by the time Maura McCaslin got the visitors into the scoring column with the first of her five three-pointers with 3:34 left in the half. Her set shot from the right corner made it 21-3.
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\”You couldn\’t ask for a better start, to shut them out as long as we did,\” Gearhart said. \”Defensively, our kids really hustled the first half. We didn\’t expect them to be good perimeter shooters. We wanted to hedge and stop any drives they were making, and we did that early. We forced some turnovers off of that. I think we frustrated them by not allowing them to penetrate too much.\”
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Curwensville led 27-7 at halftime with Struble and White accounting for 23 points.
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Gearhart thought his team might have had a little bit of a letdown in the third quarter. Moniteau came out a different team, too, outscoring the Lady Tide 9-4 in the first 3:25. Everybody had trouble finding the range after that, leaving the Lady Tide was on top 35-19 at the buzzer.
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In the hectic fourth period, the Lady Warriors outscored the Lady Tide 27-21 but never got closer than 10 points. McCaslin\’s 11 points and Amy Gladd\’s seven spurred Moniteau, which had gone to a fullcourt press late in the third quarter. The Lady Warriors also began to attack the Lady Tide\’s 3-2 zone with dribble penetration. The result was a constant parade to the foul line by both teams in the last three minutes.
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Curwensville\’s last nine points came on free throws, but eight misses enabled Moniteau to close the gap by making eight foul shots in a row and hitting a pair of field goals.Â
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\”You knew they were going to make a comeback,\” Gearhart said. \”I\’ll give them credit. They fought the whole way. And it got pretty physical out there. I was little disappointed we didn’t get to the foul line more than we did. And when we finally did get to the foul line, we weren’t hitting. We could have salted the game earlier.
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\”We did score more in the second half than we did the first half, so it wasn’t like we stopped playing. They stepped up their defense and started pushing on us a little bit more, and we\’re just not that quick to get free off the initial cut. When we were moving, we got some opportunities.\”
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Holly Fink, who entered the game five-for-eight at the foul line for the season, was perfect in six attempts from the foul line and had eight points. Hannah Walls added the other six and topped the Lady Tide in rebounds with seven. White chipped five rebounds and four assists.
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\”White moved without the ball better than she has in a long time, and we found her inside,\” Gearhart said. \”She worked hard this game, and that\’s what we need out of her. She only had nine shots, but she was fouled a few times.
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\”I was pleased with everybody. Anybody who was on the floor gave me a good effort. Dani finds points. Fink hit some big foul shots. Hannah had a lot of rebounds early. Ronna (Knepp) found Jackie underneath a couple of times and had three assists. It was a good effort. It\’s one we needed. I just hope we\’re not banged up too much for Thursday.\”
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Curwensville shot 45 percent (19-for-42) to Moniteau\’s 24.5 (12-for-49. The Lady Warriors had a 30-26 edge in rebounds.
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McCaslin wound up with 19 points for Moniteau, which finished 7-16.
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MONITEAU — 46
Amanda Gladd 0 0-0 0, Amy Gladd 2 5-8 9, Kenzie Timblin 2 1-2 5, Maura McCaslin 7 0-2 19, Megan Campbell 0 0-0 0, Emily Hillard 0 2-2 2, Jenna McCrory 1 4-4 7, Sam Kristufek 0 0-0 0, Amber Neff 0 4-4 4. Totals: 12 16-22 46.
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CURWENSVILLE — 56
Dani Struble 11 4-7 27, Hannah Walls 2 2-4 6, Ronna Knepp 0 0-0 0, Holly Fink 1 6-6 8, Jackie White 5 5-8 15, Holly Lansberry 0 0-2 0, Shannon Hamm 0 0-0 0. Totals: 19 17-227 56.
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Three-Point Field Goals:Â Moniteau 6 (McCaslin 5, McCrory 1); Curwensville 1 (Struble).
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Score by Quarters:
Moniteau         0   7 12 27 – 46
Curwensville    12 15  8 21 – 56