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"It was a good league win tonight and a game we had to have," Elk County Catholic head coach Ken Pistner said. "We were able to spread the scoring around and had three players in double figures."
Four ladies combined to do all the scoring for Elk County Catholic (20-1, 9-0 District 9). Kaitlyn Geci finished with a game-high 16 points while Bre Grimone added 13 and Emily Detsch had 12.
The Lady Crusaders never trailed in the game and took a 10-2 lead into the second quarter.
Clearfield (5-15, 1-9 D-9) scored the first basket in the second on a shot by Annie Janocko to get within six, but it was the closest the Lady Bisons would get to the lead the rest of the game.
Elk County Catholic outscored Clearfield 20-6 in the remainder of the quarter as Geci scored eight in the frame and Grimone added six to take a 30-10 lead into the half.
"We came out really strong and played really hard in the first half," Pistner said.
The Lady Crusaders ended the first half 15 of 28 from the field while Clearfield was 5 of 27, after the Lady Bisons missed their first 10 shots of the game.
Elk County Catholic led by as many as 23 points after the first minute-plus of action in the second half, but Clearfield ended the third on a 14-4 run, including the final eight points in the quarter, to cut their deficit to 39-26.
Amber Byerly scored eight points in the frame for the Lady Bisons and led Clearfield in scoring with 15 points while Janocko finished with eight.
"We didn't play with the same enthusiasm and energy like we did in the first half," Pistner said. "Clearfield is a team that likes to shoot the three and if they start to hit, you can find yourself in a bit of trouble."
The Lady Bisons were three of seven from behind the arc in the second half. It was their only 3-pointers of the game though as they finished three of 16 while ECC missed its only 3-point try.
Elk County Catholic also held the advantage at the foul line. The Lady Crusaders were 6-for-7 from the line in the final frame and finished the game seven of nine while Clearfield ended one of two.
Clearfield returns to action Friday night when it hosts Bradford (7-13) while Elk County Catholic prepares for a big rematch with St. Marys (19-2) Saturday night.
"We have an important league game on Saturday, and it is the last game before the District 9 seeding so we are looking forward to that," Pistner said. "It should be fun."
Saturday's contest will be the rubber match in the series between the Lady Crusaders and the Lady Dutch.
St. Marys handed Elk County Catholic its only loss of the season, 57-43, in the finals of the Elk County Catholic Holiday Tournament Dec. 29 and the Lady Crusaders evened the score one week later with a 47-46 win on Jan. 5.
In Wednesday's other game:
St. Marys 47,
Bradford 38
At Bradford, the Lady Dutch notched their 19th win of the season with a 47-38 win over Bradford.
Things were close through the first quarter but St. Marys (19-2) pulled away in the second to pick up the win.
St. Marys' Kayla Hoohuli finished with a game-high 21 points while Emily Hathorn and Mandy Stinchcomb each had nine.
Shelly Fuhrman led Bradford with 15.
The Lady Dutch will travel to Elk County Catholic Saturday.
