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McCort stops C-K’s run in quarters

JOHNSTOWN — Claysburg-Kimmel was not able to build on its recent success, as its season came to an end at the hands of Bishop McCort on Wednesday night.

The Lady Crushers came away with a 63-41 victory, but it wasn’t entirely smooth sailing for them. The Lady Bulldogs opened up the scoring with a 6-0 run before McCort coach John Hahn called an early timeout to get his team motivated.

“I called the timeout — and I never call a timeout in the first quarter — but I just told them that we need to start playing,” said Hahn.

Bishop McCort went on to finish the first quarter with a 14-5 run and a three-point lead. It was all McCort the rest of the way.

Senior point guard Haley Thomas was held to eight points under her season average. Unfortunately for the Lady Bulldogs, Thomas still scored 15.

“We talked all week about secondary scoring,” Hahn said. “And getting the pressure off of Haley.”

McCort’s Machala Gibbons helped to do just that. Gibbons led all scorers with 17 points, including 12 from beyond the arc.

“We were getting beat back, and then they had (Gibbons) making her shots too,” Claysburg coach Jess Veverka said. “We just weren’t able to answer on those.”

The Lady Bulldogs stayed with McCort through the second quarter, in which they shot 100 percent albeit on five attempts.

“That hurt us too,” Veverka said. “We needed to get more shots up in the second quarter.”

Claysburg entered halftime with a nine-point deficit, but things began to unravel in the third quarter as it was outscored by 12 and entered the final quarter down 21.

“We were tired in the second half,” said Veverka. “We only have seven girls, and for them to try to hustle up and down the court against this team, is tough.”

Lady Bulldogs’ sophomore Emily Claar finished the game with 16 points, followed by senior Elizabeth Weiland with 13.

The Lady Crushers will take on fifth-seeded Blairsville (18-5) in the semifinal round of the playoffs on Monday.

The Lady Bulldogs have to set their sights on next season with intentions of staying consistent after finishing this up-and-down regular season on a positive note, winning five of their last seven games to earn their playoff berth.

“We had a rough start to our season,” Veverka said. “We played some very good teams, but we were able to build on some things coming into the playoffs.”

Although the team will be returning a solid core, three Lady Bulldogs played their final high school basketball game on Wednesday night, leaving Veverka one player short of a starting five.

“We have a couple girls coming up (from junior high) next year and a couple girls that weren’t out this year that might come back out for us next year,” Veverka said.

Although Claysburg will have its hands full filling out its roster for next season, Veverka won’t soon forget what this year’s team was able to accomplish with just seven players.

“Yes, we lost tonight but I’m still proud of our girls,” she said. “They played a heck of a game.”

Claysburg-Kimmel (41): Claar 8 3-4 16, Weiland 5 3-5 13, Locke 2 0-0 4, Hartman 3 0-0 6, Kennedy 1 0-0 2. Totals — 19 6-9 41.

Bishop McCort (63): Thomas 3 9-9 15, Gibbons 6 1-2 17, Yingling 2 6-8 10, Widmar 6 0-0 12, Wilson 1 0-0 2, Martin 1 0-0 3, Hunt 2 0-2 4. Totals — 21 16-21 63.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Claysburg-Kimmel 11 10 7 13 — 41

Bishop McCort 14 16 19 14 — 63

3-point goals: Claysburg-Kimmel 1 (Claar); Bishop McCort 5 (Gibbons 4, Martin).

Records: Claysburg-Kimmel (12-11); Bishop McCort (18-4).

Officials: Doug Steve, Tony Soffile, Marty Maschak.

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