Junior High Girls Basketball Teams Split With Forest Area (11/23/15)

(By 8th Grade Coach Dave Constantino)

8th Grade Girls: Clarion 25 – Forest Area 21

The Clarion Junior High 8th grade girls’ basketball team staged a furious second half rally to come back from 10 points down at the half to defeat Forest Area 25-21, Monday (November 23rd) afternoon, in Tionesta. After a slow first half where Clarion found itself down 19-9, the Lady Cats turned up the defensive pressure in the second half and outscored the Fires 16-2. Sarah Clark played tremendous defense in the second half and pestered Forest Area’s point guard the entire 90 feet of the court and helped caused numerous turnovers which led to easy Lady Cat baskets. Kyara Girvan played tremendous defense on Forest’s leading scorer and held her to no points in the second half. Girvan also popped in 7 points. Kaitlyn Constantino was steady in the point guard position again and led Clarion in scoring with 12 points. Constantino and Girvan provide tremendous leadership for the young Cats as they are the only 8th graders on the team. Maria Bradley pumped in a big 4 points and once again did a great job rebounding. Ava Cherico also played a key role in helping to break Forest Area’s zone press and finished with 2 points.

Clarion outscored Forest Area 10-0 in the third quarter to tie the game at 19 heading into the frantic fourth quarter. Forest scored a basket with 4 minutes to go to take the lead by two, only to see Constantino tie the game with 2 free throws with 3 minutes remaining. Constantino scored with a minute and a half remaining to put the Cats up by 2 and gave them a lead they would never relinquish. Girvan scored an insurance basket 30 seconds later to ice the victory. Clarion then ran off the remaining time to secure the victory.

7th Grade Game: Forest 28 – Clarion 14

Clarion’s 7th grade team continues to improve and battle each night out as they took on a Forest Area team made up of largely 8th graders and fought hard in 28-14 loss in the nightcap. Clarion started out slow by only scoring 2 points in the first quarter. They then rallied to score 12 points over the next three quarters. Clarion was led by Emily Grabiak and Ava Cherico who both scored 6 points a piece. Ava Kiser also bucketed two points for the Lady Cats.

It is great to see the progress being made by the young Cats. Hannah Hazlett did a nice job rebounding for the Cats and Kiser continues to improve her play at the point guard position. This 7th grade group is fun to work with because they are receptive to the comments made from their coaches to improve their play.

Clarion will host Redbank Valley (tomorrow) Tuesday (November 24th) and then will be off until after Thanksgiving.

(Thanks to Coach Constantino for this article.)