Lady Wolves hit rough patch

After winning its first seven games of the season, the St. Joseph’s Academy girls’ basketball team has hit a bit of a rough spot, to say the least.

In their last two outings, the Lady Wolves have lost to Philipsburg-Osceola and Bald Eagle Area by a single point in each game.

At Philipsburg-Osceola on Jan. 12, Halle Herrington scored 13 of her game-high 31 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Lady Mounties past St. Joseph’s 57-56.

P-O built a 30-17 lead at halftime and looked to make it an easy win, but SJCA came back. Herrington, however, took over down the stretch and the Mounties were able to hold on.

Junior Denaya Poston-Cooper led the Wolves with 17 points, and Loryn Hughes added 10 points for P-O.

Then at Bald Eagle on Jan. 15, Poston-Cooper again had a solid performance with 18 points, but BEA countered with a balanced attack and managed to hold on for a 39-38 win.

Morgan Chambers led BEA with eight points, but Lacee Barnhart, Mariah Veneziano, Rachel Veneziano and Sarah Holler all scored six points in the win.

The loss dropped SJCA to 7-2 for the season, but for BEA it was its first win since a 43-37 victory over West Branch in the West Branch Holiday Tournament.

In that stretch, the Lady Eagles lost four straight to Mountain League foes including P-O, Clearfield, Tyrone and Huntingdon, but the win over St. Joe’s was a big confidence boost going into the final month of the season.

Coming up now for BEA are its three biggest local rivals — Bellefonte, Penns Valley and P-O — before a rematch with SJCA on Thursday, Jan. 25.

PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA

Speaking of Philipsburg-Osceola, the Lady Mounties are continuing on with their wild up-and-down season. This team either makes a statement with a big win or falls flat in a one-sided loss. There doesn’t seem to be any in between.

In the Mounties’ last five games, there were three big wins over Harmony Area (75-34), BEA (46-25) and SJCA (57-56), but then there were losses at Central (70-40), to Huntingdon at home (62-42) and to Brookville (72-51).

Halle Herrington is doing her share and more, averaging more than 30 points per game, constantly threatening to go even higher as she did with 39 against Brookville. But the teams that have the most success are able to control her teammates and deny P-O any scoring balance.

At 5-6 now, the Mounties will enter an important stretch of games, first against Clearfield then Tyrone, BEA, Bellefonte and Penns Valley.

BELLEFONTE

Bellefonte’s difficult season continued with losses to Tyrone (64-49) and Central (56-27) that dropped its record to 1-10 for the season.

Nothing seems to be going right for the Lady Raiders except that they are able to put points on the board. But they are having trouble holding teams down — their last four opponents all scored over 50 and two reached 64.

Home games against BEA on Jan. 17, after press time, and Huntingdon on Thursday, Jan. 18, are next up on the schedule.

STATE COLLEGE

The State College girls’ team fell in a Mid-Penn contest to Central Dauphin East, 54-41, on Jan 12, but the Little Lady Lions remained over .500 with an overall record of 7-6.

Still, the loss to CD East hurt. Maya Bokunewicz scored 19 points for SC and Elizabeth Czekaj added 10, but a cold second quarter sealed the Lions’ fate. After leading by two, East rallied to take a 26-20 halftime lead and then outscored SC by nine down the stretch to hold on for the win.

Just one game separated the two teams in the Mid-Penn standings, but East went to 5-3 with the victory and State College fell to 3-4.

Three important Mid-Penn games are coming up quickly against Harrisburg (Jan. 17, after press time), Mifflin (Friday, Jan. 19) and Cumberland Valley (Friday, Jan. 26), so the Lions will have chances to make up ground in the conference.