Elk Catholic’s Kirstie Pistner, 11, scored two of her six points on this play as she shoots over the head of two Clearfield defenders during action in the third quarter of last night’s game.

By Wayne A. Bauer
Daily Press Staff

The Lady Crusaders of Elk County Catholic kept their District 9 League record perfect as they handed the visiting Lady Bisons of Clearfield a 61-40 setback in league play last evening at the ECCHS gym.

Ken Pistner’s Lady Crusaders used a strong performance on the boards along with a very tight defense to hand the visiting Lady Bisons the loss.

“I was very happy with our overall play tonight,” said ECCHS Coach Ken Pistner. “I felt we hit the boards really well tonight as we were able to get that second and third chance at the hoop. Our defense was also very good tonight as we forced quite a few turnovers and kept the Clearfield girls from getting the three point shot. I was very pleased with the job we did in the second half on Byerly as she was held to four points after scoring 11 in the first half.”

“Our rebounding was a team effort tonight as Sandy (Levenduski), Emily (Detsch) and Bre (Grimone) came up with 27 rebounds between them,” said Pistner.  “Our entire squad played well tonight as all but two of the girls hit the scoring column.”

Bre Grimone led the Lady Crusaders in the scoring column with 17 points on eight field goals and a foul goal. She also checked in with eight rebounds and six assists. She was followed by Emily Detsch with 12 points, all on field goals, and nine rebounds. Kaitlyn Geci was next in the scoring column with nine points on three field goals and a trey. She also had seven assists and seven steals. Karly Carnovale was next with eight points, on all field goals, followed by Kirstie Pistner with six points and five assists. Nikki Gaton checked in with four points, followed by Sandy Levenduski with three points, and Alyssa Hunter with two points. Levenduski was the leading rebounder with 10.

Amber Byerly led the Lady Bisons in scoring with 15 points on seven field goals and a foul goal. Annie Janocko was next with 11 points on four field goals and three foul goals. Madison Sopic and Elizabeth Peters each had six points, while Gwenn Porter finished out the scoring with two points.

Grimone opened the scoring in the game with a field goal, then Clearfield tied it at 2-2 on two foul goals. Elk then scored 10 straight points, (four by Grimone, two each by Pistner, Detsch and Geci) to take a 12-2 lead. Following a bucket by Byerly, Pistner put the Lady Crusaders back up by 10 with a bucket of her own. Three straight Clearfield buckets cut the lead to four, 14-10, before Elk went on another scoring spree as they hit the next eight points (four by Grimone, two each by Detsch and Geci) to take a 22-10 lead. Byerly hit a bucket just before the quarter ended to make it 22-12.

Pistner opened the second quarter with a bucket followed by two straight by Detsch to make it 28-12. Clearfield battled back to cut it to 28-18 with three buckets of their own. A foul goal by Levenduski and a bucket by Grimone made it 31-18. Clearfield scored the next two buckets then Carnovale scored to make it 33-23. A foul goal by Clearfield cut it to 33-24, then Pistner scored just as the half ended to give Elk a 35-24 lead.

Geci opened the second half with the only trey of the game to push the lead to 14 points. A Clearfield bucket was then answered by field goals from Geci and Grimone to make it 42-26. Clearfield scored the next four points, but Elk finished out the quarter by scoring the final seven points, one by Grimone and six by Carnovale, to make the score 49-30 going into the final period.

Grimone, Detsch and Gaton scored early in the final period to make it 55-30. A couple of Clearfield fielders was followed by another Gaton bucket and one by Levenduski, 59-34. Three more Clearfield scores made it 59-40 before Hunter scored the final bucket of the game to make the score 61-40.

Game notes

Elk County Catholic is now 11-1 on the season and 5-0 in the District 9 League. In the AML the Lady Crusaders are 3-0. Clearfield is now 4-5 on the year and 2-2 in the league.

The Lady Crusaders return to action on Friday night when they travel to Brookville to take on the Lady Raiders in another D-9 League game. On Monday Elk will be at home as they play host to Kane in an AML game.

Clearfield Area 40

Annie Janocko 4-0-3-4-11, Sarah Kovalick 0-0-0-0-0, Jayme Ryan 0-0-0-0-0, Madison Sophic 3-0-0-0-6, Gwenn Porter 1-0-0-0-2, Amber Byerly 7-0-1-4-15, Elizabeth Peters 3-0-0-0-6. Totals 18-0-4-8-40.

ECCHS 61

Kirstie Pistner 3-0-0-0-6, Kaitlyn Geci 3-1-0-0-9, Bre Grimone 8-0-1-2-17, Abbey Salter 0-0-0-0-0, Emily Detsch 6-0-0-2-12, Sandy Levenduski 1-0-1-2-3, Alyssa Hunter 1-0-0-0-2, Dani Cassels 0-0-0-0-0, Nikki Gaton 2-0-0-0-4, Karly Carnovale 4-0-0-0-8. Totals 28-1-2-6-61.

Score by quarters

Clearfield  12  12    6  10  40

ECCHS      22  13  14  12  61

JV’s win

Elk Catholic’s junior varsity squad also picked up a victory over the Clearfield girls in the preliminary game as the Lady Crusaders topped the Lady Bisons by a 37-14 score.

Elk took an 8-4 first period lead then pushed it to 18-9 by the time the first half ended. In the third quarter the Lady Crusaders extended their lead to 15 points, 26-11. Elk took the final period 11-3 to win the game by a 37-14 score.

Clearfield scoring: Angela Moore 3, Lori Zalno 2, Sierra Grice 1, Johanna Ryan 1, Lisa Ambuski 0, Julia Ammerman 4, Kristen Butler 4.

ECCHS scoring: Taylor Frank 4, Lexie Meholic 8, Abbi Petrosky 3, Abby Meyer 4, Ellie Petrosky 11, Emily Gregory 5, Jena Struble 2, Taylor Schlimm 0, Maggie Sorg 0, Helen Danz 0.