Kovalick scored all of her team-high 12 points in the second half, and Janocko was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line to lead Clearfield to a 51-37 win over the Lady Tide at Patton Hall.

"You could see those two leaders out there," Clearfield head coach Joey Castagnolo said. "It's their senior year, and they didn't want to lose to (rival) Curwensville."

The Lady Bisons were clinging to a 20-17 lead early in the second half when Janocko took the ball to the hoop and got fouled, then drilled both free throws.

Jayme Ryan and Kovalick hit threes on consecutive possessions to up the advantage to 28-17. And after a mini Lady Tide run, Kovalick nailed another 3-pointer to open a double-digit lead once again.

Janocko's inside game, along with teammates Amber Byerly and Elizabeth Peters got the Lady Bisons to the foul line 25 times in the contest, which was 18 more free throws than the Lady Tide took, and got Curwensville post players Alesia Bressler and Taylor Bumbarger in foul trouble.

"We didn't get the foul calls on our end, and they got them on theirs," Curwensville head coach Vic Gearhart said. "To me, that was the difference in the second half. They got fouls and got to the foul line and controlled the tempo.

"They wanted to push it inside, and we had a couple of our inside girls in foul trouble. They got it inside and it was effective for them. But we wanted to take them out of their comfort zone, which is run-and-gun, and I think we did."

The Lady Bisons push inside also opened their outside shot, which was key to their ability to pull away in the second half. Clearfield shot just 1-for-11 in the first half from behind the arc, but made four of its eight shots in the second half.

"We had a height advantage, and the two big girls from Curwensville had three fouls each," Castagnolo said.

"That's why we started pounding inside. We weren't scoring much inside, but they respected us so much that it opened up the outside game."

Clearfield needed every bit of its outside game to offset Curwensville's scoring machine on the night - Tess Bloom.

After missing four of her first five shots, Bloom got hot ... scorching hot. She made seven of her next 12 shots, including three from long distance, to keep the Lady Tide in the game. Bloom led all scorers with 21 points and added five rebounds and two assists.

"She's a streaky shooter," Gearhart said. "She's been fighting herself lately. She's been down on herself. But she can get hot like that. She was finding the seams, and we got the ball to her and she was draining them. And the ones she missed were right there."

"We couldn't stop her," Castagnolo said. "I almost thought about going box-and-one. That's how much respect I had. I didn't know she could shoot that well."

Curwensville worked the deficit back under 10 in the fourth quarter, getting as close as 38-30 after Hannah Walls hit one of her two free throws. But a Byerly free throw and Gwenn Porter's driving layup put the Lady Bisons back on top by double digits - 41-30.

On Clearfield's next possession, Kovalick hit the dagger, draining her third trey of the half to help the Lady Bisons take a 44-30 lead.

"You can't give them a couple feet. That's all it takes for them to get hot," Gearhart said. "We missed assignments there or were laying off too far. You just can't do that because they're going to hit that shot."

The teams traded buckets the rest of the way to set the final.

Curwensville opened the game on a 5-0 run, getting two Bloom free throws and a Walls 3-pointer to put the visitors on their heels early. The Lady Tide kept the lead for much of the quarter, before an Angela Moore three jumpstarted a late Clearfield run. The Lady Bisons led 13-9 after one.

Each team managed just six points in the second quarter as neither could get a shot to fall. Compounding things for the Lady Bisons was some tenacious board work from the Lady Tide, who held a 12-6 rebounding advantage in the first quarter and finished the game with a 35-30 advantage.

Clearfield shot just 6-of-28 in the first half.

"They may think they played poorly in the first half, but we made them play poorly," Gearhart said. "We were on their shooters. We played with a lot of energy. We moved the ball offensively and found some cutters open. When we moved, we found people inside and took the ball to the hoop. We did what we wanted."

"We were a little flat, and I was surprised because this is such a rivalry," Castagnolo said. "I thought we would have come out a little more pepped up, and Curwensville did. They did hit the boards, and they used positioning on the box-outs very well. And we just missed our shots. If we make those, we're rolling."

Bressler led Curwensville with 10 rebounds. Bumbarger added seven with Jenessa Stiles and Walls joining Bloom with five apiece.

"We just did an excellent job (on the boards). I'm very proud of everybody's effort," Gearhart said. "Alesia had played so hard these last couple of games. She went after the ball and snatched it away from some people. She did a really good job boxing out."

Clearfield got a solid rebounding effort from Ryan, who led the Lady Bisons with eight.

"That's very encouraging," Castagnolo said. "We've been preaching and preaching to her to hit the boards. I'm real happy about that."

Porter filled the stat sheet for Clearfield, pulling down seven rebounds from her point guard position, while adding seven points, six assists and three steals.

"She's just maturing so much as our point guard and leader of this team," Castagnolo said.

Clearfield improved to 11-9 overall, while Curwensville dipped to 0-20.

The Lady Bisons are back in action Wednesday at Punxsutawney. The Lady Tide host Glendale on Thursday.

Clearfield-51

Janocko 0 8-8 8, Kovalick 4 1-1 12, Ryan 2 0-0 5, Porter 3 1-2 7, Byerly 0 1-6 1, Sopic 2 0-0 4, Peters 2 5-8 9, Moore 1 0-0 3, Zalno 1 0-0 2, Schultz 0 0-0 0, Butler 0 0-0 0. Totals: 15 16-25 51.

Curwensville-37

Bressler 1 1-2 3, Bumbarger 1 0-0 3, Bloom 8 2-2 21, Jenessa Stiles 1 0-0 2, Walls 3 1-3 8, Sidelinger 0 0-0 0, Buzard 0 0-0 0, Jenea Stiles 0 0-0 0, Strickland 0 0-0 0, Bachelier 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 4-7 37.

Three-pointers: Kovalick 3, Ryan, Moore; Bloom 3, Bumbarger, Walls.

Score by Quarters

Clearfield                                  13   6   17   15-51

Curwensville                                9   6   13   9-37