Girls’ basketball claims narrow victory over Lady Pirates
The Lady Blue Devils picked up a win over Williamsburg thanks to a clutch performance from senior Jaidyn McCracken.
February 3, 2022
Tuesday night, the 14-2 Lady Blue Devils hosted the 13-4 Williamsburg Lady Blue Pirates in an ICC matchup. The Lady Pirates, who had won nine of their last ten, were looking to stay hot going into the B-A gymnasium.
With B-A hanging on to just a two-point lead after the first half, Williamsburg came out of the locker room with an 7-0 run to give them a five-point lead. The Lady Devils answered to tied the score at 44 before going into the fourth quarter. Freshman Leigha Clapper opened the fourth with her fifth three pointer on the night, and senior Jaidyn McCracken helped B-A secure the victory by scoring the last ten in the fourth quarter to give B-A the win, 61-55.
Clapper and McCracken both ended with 17 and junior Chelsea McCaulskey was right behind them with 15.
Head coach Jim Swaney was impressed with the teams’ performance.
“[Jaidyn]’s a kid who maybe in the past didn’t play defense or get to the glass as well as she was capable of, but she’s starting to do those things,” Swaney told the Altoona Mirror. “It’s starting to come together for her, and she’s having a great season for us.”
Clapper, who plays a majority of her minutes on the JV stage, stepped up big for the Lady Devils. Swaney was happy to see confidence in her play.
“She’s our leading scorer on the junior varsity team,” Swaney told the Altoona Mirror. “But it hasn’t translated to the varsity. We have been waiting for it. Sometimes with 14-year-old freshmen, that step up to the varsity game can play mind games with you. Sometimes you aren’t in the right position to shoot, and I think what happens a lot of the time to freshmen is that they can be aggressive in the junior varsity quarters, but when you get your varsity minutes, you tend to look off to the older kids.”
The Lady Devils travel to Williamsburg tonight where the Lady Pirates will be looking for redemption.
Boys basketball falls to Curwensville
Tuesday night, the boys basketball team traveled to Curwensville for the second ICC matchup of the night.
The Devils couldn’t pull the win through as they lost by a close score of 62-55. Their record falls back to even at 9-9 while the Golden Tide improved to 5-13.
The Devils travel to Penns Valley tonight to take the 8-10 Rams.
