Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Claysburg-Kimmel’s Caitlynn Imler (left) and Northern Bedford’s Halle Baker go after the basketball Friday.

LOYSBURG — On a night when the communities, fans, players and coaches from both the Northern Bedford County and Claysburg-Kimmel school districts joined in unison to fight cancer, the Northern Bedford girls basketball team showed some splendid unity of its own.

With individuals throughout the Northern Bedford High School gymnasium adorned in black Sideline Cancer shirts in support of the Hollidaysburg-based non-profit Griffith Foundation, whose mission it is to someday find a cure for pancreatic cancer, the Lady Panthers enjoyed the benefit of a very balanced team scoring effort to rout Claysburg-Kimmel, 56-34, in an Inter-County Conference matchup.

Two players, freshman Ava Verbit and senior guard Alyssa Yeatts, reached double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively, for Northern Bedford, which placed nine different players in the scoring column while improving its record to 13-8 and its conference mark to 6-2.

“We had some really balanced scoring tonight,” Northern Bedford coach Jon Ewart said. “Our defensive pressure forced them into turnovers that we turned into points. That opened things up for us on the outside, and we started hitting those shots.”

The Northern Bedford community, with some help from the Claysburg community, banded together to raise funds for two fathers in the Northern Bedford School District who have been stricken with cancer. One is the father of a current student in the school district and the other is the father of a recent NBC graduate.

Jordan Griffith of the Sideline Cancer organization, whose father Greg, a former Hollidaysburg High School basketball standout, passed away at the age of 50 in 2011 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, said that although the final tally of funds raised to help defray the cost of treatment for cancer patients Bill Imler and Mike Dibert had not been completely tallied up at the conclusion of the girls game, the total money raised was expected to be in the neighborhood of $10,000.

“This is something that nobody understands until they’re actually in that situation,” Ewart said of the fight against cancer. “These people are going through a lot mentally and financially, and to see the community support for them here tonight is outstanding.”

Northern Bedford led, 11-4 after the first quarter and rode a 20-5 advantage in the second quarter to a 31-9 halftime lead.

The teams actually played the second half even (25-25), but by then, it was too late for Claysburg (6-15, 2-6) to overcome Northern’s big lead.

The Lady Panthers rattled off 20 of the last 23 points scored in the second quarter, with Alyssa Yeatts converting two steals into buckets, sophomore forward Blaire Gable chipping in five points, and senior forward Halle Baker and sophomore guard Hannah Yeatts both draining a 3-pointer.

Claysburg was led by junior guard Zailee Bush’s game-high 17 points.

“The second quarter was the difference tonight,” Claysburg coach Dale Troutman said. “We played them even in the second half, but the second quarter killed us. They started pressing us, and we had a hard time getting the ball inbounds, and we started turning the ball over.”

Freshman Claire McCloskey had a game-high nine rebounds and junior Alexa Francona snared eight for Claysburg, while junior Amberly Detterline and sophomore Hailee Troy corralled six rebounds apiece for Northern Bedford.

With the District 5 playoffs looming, Ewart said that his team is attempting to get into proper sync.

“Hopefully, we’re getting the kinks out of our game, and our team chemistry is becoming better as we look forward to the playoffs,” Ewart said.

CLAYSBURG-KIMMEL (34): Tipton 1 2-2 4, Bush 7 3-9 17, Francona 4 0-2 8, McCloskey 1 0-0 2, Larson 1 0-0 3, Imler 0 0-2 0, Weyant 0 0-0 0, Dibert 0 0-0 0. Totals – 14 5-15 34.

NORTHERN BEDFORD (56): Baker 2 0-0 6, A. Yeatts 5 0-0 10, Detterline 4 0-0 8, H. Yeatts 3 0-0 7, Gable 2 1-1 5, Smith 0 0-0 0, Verbit 4 0-0 11, Bollman 0 3-4 3, Reasy 2 0-0 5, L. Barton 0 1-2 1, B. Barton 0 0-0 0, Troy 0 0-0 0. Totals -22 5-7 56.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Claysburg-Kimmel 4 5 15 10–34

Northern Bedford 11 20 14 11–56

3-point goals: Claysburg-Kimmel 1 (Larson); Northern Bedford 7 (Verbit 3, Baker 2, H. Yeatts, Reasy).

Records: Claysburg-Kimmel (6-15 overall, 2-6 in the Inter-County Conference); Northern Bedford (13-8, 6-2).

Officials: Ben Straesser, Klayton Heffner, Ray Klinger.