P-O outrebounded the Lady Bisons, 57-27, and held Clearfield to 1-of-16 shooting in the second quarter en route to a 57-36 win on Monday night in Hyde.

Despite controlling the glass and keeping the Lady Bisons frigid from the floor, the Lady Mounties held just a five-point lead with 34 seconds left in the third.

P-O netted a bucket to close the third quarter and scored 10 of the first 12 points of the fourth and cruised to the win from there.

"We tell our girls that the key to winning ballgames is defense and rebounding," said P-O coach Missy Helsel. "They went out in that fourth quarter and we got every rebound and were able to shut them down. We made our baskets because we were patient and ran our offense. It was the key to the win, definitely."

The Lady Mounties had a cold spell of their own in the third, as they finished just 3-of-18 in the period, which allowed Clearfield to narrow the gap.

The Lady Bisons trailed by 13 when Madison Sopic netted a bucket that began a 9-1 run and made the score 34-29 with under a minute to play.

"I thought, ‘here we go,' because we finally got some momentum going," Clearfield head coach Joey Castagnolo said. "The third quarter was going to be over and we can reset, but then we failed to play defense. ... They didn't miss a shot in crucial situations, though. We couldn't cut into the lead until the very end (of the third)."

P-O reserve Lauren Simcox answered Jayme Ryan's 3-pointer in the waning seconds, however, as she hit a mid-range jumper.

The Lady Mounties began the final stanza with a torrent of offense, including back-to-back field goals from Mo Witters. Mackenzie Wilson added her lone hoop in front of a pair from Erika Patrick that made it a 46-31 game with 4:38 to play.

Castagnolo called a timeout, but P-O's 5-of-10 start from the floor had already put the game out of reach.

The Lady Bisons struggled, again, to make a shot and finished the stanza 3-of-13 shooting, and were 14-of-63 in the game.

Conversely, the Lady Mounties finished the game 24-of-68 after netting 10 of 18 attempts in the fourth.

"If we make a couple of baskets, we're right in there," said Castagnolo. "The big thing is, psychologically, the girls start getting down on themselves. It's happened all year. If you look back at our big wins, we made the shots.

"P-O dominated the boards, and they were more physical than us. We just got outplayed. We weren't sharp, but I can't take anything away from Philipsburg. They played hard."

The opening period went back-and-forth with neither team able to gain an edge.

The Lady Bisons scored the first five points of the game on a 3-pointer from Sarah Kovalick and a short jumper from Annie Janocko, but the Lady Mounties answered with seven straight points of their own.

After the Kovalick three got Clearfield off to a good start, the Lady Bisons struggled to dial it in from long distance. Ryan's three in the third quarter was the next one Clearfield made, as it finished just 3-of-18 from behind the arc.

Janocko led the Lady Bisons with nine points.

"We knew they had the potential to get hot from behind the 3-point line," Helsel said. "We were definitely aware of that, and our girls knew who their shooters were. We knew where we had to be."

After Clearfield's Gwenn Porter's putback as time expired in the first tied the game at 12, the Lady Mounties assumed control.

Taylor Harpster, who finished with a game-high 22 points, scored seven second-quarter points for P-O, which took a 26-18 lead into halftime after a Witters three with 25 seconds remaining.

Witters added 14 in the win.

Harpster also had a big game on the glass, pulling down a game-high 15 boards, while teammates Wilson (10) and Yonushonis (11) also recorded double-digit rebounds.

The Lady Mounties' rebounding helped P-O to the eight-point lead at intermission, as they limited Clearfield to one shot several times down the floor.

Clearfield's cold shooting performance carried over into the third quarter, too, as the Lady Bisons missed their first nine shots of the half before Janocko ended the drought with 4:56 left in the stanza.

"We missed a lot of easy shots that we should be making," said Castagnolo. "We weren't in synch all game. There was just something missing. The spark just wasn't there.

"We were lifeless and I couldn't find the right combination. I tried everything, we just didn't come ready to play."

Both squads are back in action this evening on the road, with Clearfield traveling to Brookville and P-O heading to Lewistown.

The Lady Mounties won the junior varsity game, 38-28.

Chelsea Rex led P-O with 16 points, while Simcox added 12. Angela Moore finished with eight points to lead the Lady Bisons.

Philipsburg-Osceola-57

Witters 6 0-0 14, Wilson 1 0-0 2, T. Harpster 9 1-1 22, E. Patrick 3 2-2 8, Yonushonis 3 1-2 7, Simcox 2 0-0 4, Rex 0 0-0 0, McKnight 0 0-0 0, M. Harpster 0 0-0 0. Totals: 24 4-5 57.

Clearfield-36

Porter 1 1-2 3, Kovalick 2 0-0 5, Ja. Ryan 2 2-2 8, Janocko 4 1-3 9, Sopic 2 0-0 4, Byerly 1 1-3 3, Peters 2 0-1 4, Moore 0 0-0 0, Zalno 0 0-0 0, Butler 0 0-0 0, Schultz 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 5-11 36.

Three-pointers: T. Harpster 3, Witters 2; Ja. Ryan 2, Kovalick.

Score by Quarters

Philipsburg-Osceola            12            14            10            21-57

Clearfield                          12             6             11             7-36