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Bush, Claysburg girls edge Lady Panthers

By John Hartsock

jhartsock@altoonamirror.com

CLAYSBURG — The Claysburg-Kimmel girls basketball team passed a gut check Tuesday night, and nobody on its roster showed more mettle than sophomore Zailee Bush.

Bush scored eight of her game-high 18 points in a tell-tale fourth quarter, including a key field goal and two big foul shots down the stretch, as Claysburg-Kimmel grinded out a 33-32 Inter-County Conference victory over Northern Bedford in the front end of a girls-boys basketball doubleheader between the two neighboring schools at the Claysburg-Kimmel High School gymnasium.

“(This was a) gutsy (effort), we just kept plugging away,” said Claysburg coach Dale Troutman, whose team improved to 5-6 overall and 2-2 in the conference. “(Zailee Bush) really came up big for us tonight. She has been good all year for us.”

Northern Bedford (2-6, 0-3), which got a team-high 16 points and a game-high 24 rebounds from sophomore post Amberly Detterline, led for most of the low-scoring game and carried a 21-19 advantage into the fourth quarter.

Bush hit a driving layup and added a free throw to complete the three-point play after she was fouled on the drive, to put Claysburg ahead, 28-25, with 2:43 left.

After one of two free throws by Addie Love pulled Northern Bedford to within 28-26, Bush scored another layup to put Claysburg up, 30-26.

Detterline’s putback and an inside bucket by junior forward Bella Gable tied the score, 30-30, with 1:10 left, before Bush converted a pair of free throws with 58 seconds left to give Claysburg a 32-30 lead.

Senior Bella Francona followed with one of two free throws to put Claysburg ahead, 33-30, before Detterline’s rebound bucket pulled Northern Bedford to within a point, 33-32, with 16 seconds remaining.

It ended that way, as neither team scored again before time ran out.

“It was a tough loss,” said Northern Bedford coach Jon Ewart, whose team converted just 13 of 65 floor shots for a 20 percent clip. “We shot very poorly from the field. We didn’t necessarily finish what we needed to finish tonight.”

Troutman said that his players overcame some nerves to right their ship and prevail.

“We were like a deer in the headlights for a while, and I had to call a couple of timeouts,” said Troutman, whose team converted nine of 39 floor shots. “We had open looks, but we were missing a lot of shots.”

NORTHERN BEDFORD (32): A. Yeatts 0 0-0 0, Baker 1 0-0 3, Love 2 1-4 6, Detterline 8 0-4 16, Gable 1 3-6 5, Barton 1 0-0 2, Smith 0 0-0 0, H. Yeatts 0 0-0 0. Totals – 13 4-14 32.

CLAYSBURG-KIMMEL (33): B. Francona 2 1-4 6, Tipton 3 0-2 9, Bush 4 9-15 18, A. Francona 0 0-0 0, Feathers 0 0-0 0, Larson 0 0-0 0, Mowery 0 0-0 0. Totals – 9 10-21 33.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Northern Bedford 7 9 5 11–32

Claysburg-Kimmel 5 8 6 14–33

3-point goals: Northern Bedford 2 (Baker, Love); Claysburg-Kimmel 5 (Tipton 3, Bush, B. Francona).

Records: Northern Bedford (2-6 overall, 0-3 in the Inter-County Conference); Claysburg-Kimmel (5-6, 2-2).

Officials: Nick Roman, Ed Danel, Craig Stahl.

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