Bellefonte girls basketball, led by Jaylee Lose, wins over Philipsburg-Osceola
Bellefonte and Philipsburg-Osceola found themselves in another tight battle with time trickling off of the clock.
The Lady Raiders needed rebounds and buckets. Luckily for them, sophomore forward Jaylee Lose jumped up off of the bench and answered the call with 17 points in a 48-39 win on Thursday night.
“(I just had to) keep getting rebounds and keep putting them back as fastly and quickly as I can,” Lose said.
Lose, along with junior guard Maria Cotter and sophomore forward Taylor Brown are all on the softball team together. The chemistry could be seen from a mile away – Brown cheering on Lose from the bench if she wasn’t in the game, Cotter hitting Lose on a pass leading to a score or Brown and Lose wreaking havoc across the middle of the paint.
Cotter finished with 12 points and could feel the connection between the trio growing.
“It’s exciting because we get to build stronger bonds within the sports,” Cotter said. “It helps with trust in those sports, on and off of the court and the field.”
Bellefonte began the game with Mackenzie Ellenberger getting on the board with a 3-point field goal. Cotter one-upped her teammate with an and-one, 3-point field goal for four quick points. Their teammate, Emma Rossman, additionally had two points. Philipsburg-Osceola managed to score four points in the quarter, split between Reagan Thorp and Lily Warlow’s baskets. Bellefonte had a 9-4 advantage at the end of the opening frame.
The Lady Mounties captured the lead early in the second quarter with Warlow scoring two quick buckets, but the Lady Raiders swashbuckled their way into the driver’s seat with Lose’s eight points off of the bench in relief of Taylor Brown. Bellefonte led 24-18 at the half.
Bellefonte continued to narrowly control its lead through the third quarter with Lose boosting her scoring output to 12 points, Cotter with 10 and Ellenberger with nine. Khendyl Sharrer, Emily Gustkey and Maddy Malinich each had seven points for Philipsburg-Osceola as the Lady Mounties trailed 38-34.
The Lady Raiders went on to win with Lose pulling down a multitude of rebounds and finding her open teammates. Both Lose and Brown were on the court and made the key a void that no one could score inside of.
“They’re two bigs and they’re two strong bigs,” Philipsburg-Osceola head coach Brandon Myers said. “We have difficulty getting them out of the paint and that’s just a good job on their part of being strong down low. We have to do a better job of getting lower, pushing them out and not getting sucked under the basket.”
Philipsburg-Osceola and Bellefonte each have just three regular season games remaining on the year. The Lady Mounties have three straight road games — Hollidaysburg at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, West Branch at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Saint Joseph’s Catholic on Thursday at 6 p.m. Bellefonte will host Tyrone at 7:30 p.m. on Monday and Mifflinburg at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday and will travel to Williamsport on Feb. 11.
Bellefonte 48, Philipsburg-Osceola 39
B (4-15): Lose 17, Cotter 12, Ellenberger 10, Ripka 5, Rossman 4
PO (4-15): Warlow 9, Sharrer 9, Malinich 7, Gustkey 7, Thorp 5, Gallaher 2
This story was originally published February 2, 2023 at 10:37 PM.
