Lady Cats Basketball Team Records Victory Against Berries (02/01/15)

The Clarion Area Girls Basketball Team bounced back from close losses to Venango Catholic and Redbank Valley, earlier in the week, by defeating visiting Cranberry 61-42, on Friday night (January 31st).

Gloria Kroh winning the opening tip

The Lady Cats jumped out a 6-0 lead, in a game, in which they never trailed. They led 12-7 after one. A three-pointer by Nicki Glenn gave the Cats their biggest lead of the half at 21-8, partway into the second period. The half ended with Clarion leading 27-18.

A 10-0 Clarion run, three Kelly Beveridge field goals sandwiched between two by Maci Thornton, at the end of the third, moved the Cats lead to 46-25. The Lady Cats and Lady Berries pretty much traded point for point in the last stanza, with Cranberry holding a 17-15 advantage, setting the 61-42 final.

Thornton led Clarion with twenty-six points. Gloria Kroh who had a nice game inside had 8 points, followed by Glenn with 6 and Beveridge with six.

Anna Reed scored four points. Julie Kenneson and Alexis Constantino each had 3 points, while Lauren Wiser and Sophie Wolf scored two-points apiece.

Lady Cats were strong on defense.

The Lady Cats are scheduled to travel to A-C Valley on Monday (February 2nd).

Coach Ed Baumcratz had this to say after the game, “Coach Ed Baumcratz: “Tonight was a good night. We had a lot of people step up. We had a couple tough losses verses Redbank and Venango Catholic.

“I’ve never coached a year like this with all the cancellations of games and practices. We haven’t really jelled yet and I know a lot of teams are going through the same thing. But we have to play better and tonight’s one step in that direction, just to play better as a team and get ready for the playoffs.

“We have a tough schedule coming up. We have A-C Valley, a couple games with North Clarion and another game with VC so we need to start clicking at the right time here.

“Hopefully these girls are hungry and are going to be ready for the playoffs come next week.

“I think Maci had 26 points tonight, which is one of her better games. She could have had about 35 but she had a lot of assists there. She did a great job getting her teammates involved and a lot of those girls finished. So she played very well and stepped up as a leader, I thought. And a lot of the younger girls responded well, got a lot of good playing time from them too.”