CLARION 54, DUBOIS CENTRAL CATHOLIC 40

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Feb. 23, 2010 - District 9 Class A Girls First Round

By Chris Rossetti

CLARION – Skyler Ganoe had 18 points, seven rebounds, five steals and an assist to lead Clarion to 54-40 win over visiting DuBois Central Catholic.

“She is a senior playing like a senior right now,” Roger Walter said. “She’s tough. When she can just get out and run, she’s tough. A lot of her buckets are rebounds on one end and finishes on the other. Rebounding wise, she is just an athlete. We expect that out of her. She is playing like she should right now.”

Clarion (14-9) pretty much controlled the game from midway through the first quarter on and never trailed after taking a 7-6 lead on Kelly Peterson jumper with 3:56 left in the first. The Lady Cats led by seven, 17-10, at the end of the first eight minutes and 27-21 at halftime before outscoring DCC (11-13) 22-10 in the first 11-plus minutes of the second half to take complete control of the game.

Defense was the key for Clarion, as it limited DCC to just four points in the paint in the second half after the Lady Cardinals scored 18 of their 21 first-half points in the lane.

“In the first half, we were adjusting to their first pass way too far,” Walter said. “It was freeing up the opposite side of the paint. In the second half, we decided to send one girl in fronting (Miller) Hopkins every time she had it. A lot of their game goes through her. In the second half, we limited her touches. Kelsey (Beichner) played tough on her.”

Clarion held Hopkins, DCC’s leading scorer at 14.4 ppg, to nine points including just one in the second half.

“At halftime we talked about getting the ball into Miller,” DCC head coach Paul Cherry said. “But we held the ball and didn’t move it enough. We stood around on offense and watched. It was a combination of their defense and us standing around and not moving it as much as I would have liked.”

Clarion also scored 19 points off 26 DCC turnovers, 17 of them caused by Lady Cat steals.

“Turnovers have been our Achilles heel all year,” Cherry said. “When we didn’t have very many turnovers we win. We had way too many turnovers to win any game.”

Bri Nellis added 12 points, six steals, five rebounds and two assists for Clarion, which also got nine points and eight rebounds from Peterson and nine points, three assists and three steals from Kaitlin Roth.

Lauresa Gulvas led DCC with 12 points with Hopkins adding 14 rebounds, four steals and a couple of blocked shots to her nine tallies.

Clarion will face West Forest in the quarterfinals at West Forest Thursday. The Lady Indians beat Ridgway 77-34 in the first round Tuesday. West Forest owns a pair of wins over Clarion including a 57-38 win at West Forest Feb. 18 and a 41-34 victory at Clarion Jan. 27.

 “We are going to change the tempo of the game,” Walter said. “We have a few surprises for them. It’s playoff time. Normally, we do some things in playoffs that people don’t expect. We are going to see what happens.”

NOTES – DCC outrebounded Clarion 45-33 including 17-13 on the offensive glass. But the offensive edge didn’t translate, as both teams had nine second-chance points … Clarion shot 38.9 percent (21 of 54) for the game with DCC coming in at 33.3 percent (16 of 48(.

CLARION 54, DUBOIS CENTRAL CATHOLIC 40

Score by Quarters

DCC 10 11 8 11 – 40

Clarion 17 10 12 15 – 54

DCC – 40

Alyssa Marchioni 1 0-0 2, Tricia Varacallo 1 1-2 3, Julieanne Heasley 0 0-0 0, Joanna Fitzer 0 0-0 0, Miller Hopkins 4 1-3 9, Natalie Robison 2 1-2 5, Megan Hassan 0 0-0 0, Megan Witherow 2 3-4 7, Lauresa Gulvas 5 0-1 12, Julie Fitzer 1 0-0 2, Alex Goldbach 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 6-12 40.

Clarion – 54

Bri Nellis 5 2-2 12, Skyler Ganoe 5 8-10 18, Kaitlin Roth 4 0-0 9, Kelly Peterson 4 1-4 9, Kelsey Beichner 2 0-0 4, Hannah Wolf 1 0-0 2, Matti Thornton 0 0-0 0, Angela Driscoll 0 0-0 0, Kate Fillman 0 0-0 0, Ashley Hummell 0 0-0 0, Ashley Best 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 11-16 54.

Three-pointers: DCC 2 (Gulvas 2). Clarion 1 (Roth).