HYDE — Sloppy in the early going, the Clearfield Area High School boys basketball team got its act together when solid defense eventually translated into transition points, and the top-seeded Bison stampeded past Bradford 59-35 in a District 9 Class AAAA semifinal at Bison Gymnasium Wednesday night.
Evan Brown garnered scoring laurels with 20 points and Tommy Hazel contributed 17 for coach Nate Glunt’s 22-1 Bison, who will be shooting for their 14th win in a row and their third consecutive district championship against Punxsutawney next week, with the date, site and time to be determined.
The No. 2-seeded Chucks (15-8) advanced with a 77-57 victory over St. Marys in the other semi.
The Bison ended their regular season two weeks ago, and the effects of the layoff were on display for the large crowd through the first quarter as they misfired on seven of 11 shots and were guilty of an uncharacteristic six turnovers, including three steals and two charging fouls.
“We definitely were rusty,” Glunt said. “You scrimmage all you want. It’s different than playing in a game.
“But give Bradford credit. They turned us over. We just didn’t throw passes away in the first quarter. They just took the ball from us.”
However, the fourth-seeded Owls (8-14) also were struggling and failed to take advantage of the Bison’s slow start, missing their first eight shots before Nate Higbie cashed in a steal.
Unbelievably, that made it 2-2 after five minutes and four seconds.
Jon Gates, fresh off the bench, broke the tie with a three-pointer from the left corner 17 seconds later, and the Bison were on their way.
With Bradford’s defense concentrating on containing Hazel and Will Myers, Clearfield’s two 1,000-point scorers, Brown converted a pair of old-fashioned three-pointers to create an 11-2 gap at the first rest stop.
Glunt doled out praise to the Owls for limiting Myers to seven points, only the second time he’s failed to reach double figures.
“They took certain things away, and we weren’t used to teams doing that to us,” Glunt said. “They weren’t going to let some guys get open looks, and (Myers) was one of them. They were doubling Tommy on ball screens, so that made it hard on him.
“But, then, they gave Evan space, and he was able to take advantage of it. He’s really good at getting to the basket, which is awesome. I saw it in his eyes in pre-game. You could just tell he was ready to get it done.”
Clearfield took control in the second quarter, racing away to a 31-12 halftime cushion with Brown netting six more points and Hazel heating up for seven as the transition game began to click.
“That all stems from our defense,” Glunt explained. “We were able to get stops and then were able to get out on the open floor and make plays. That got us in a rhythm, and we started playing well after that.”
Indeed, the Bison did, closing the half on an 18-5 run and beginning the third quarter with a 10-2 run that turned the game into a 41-14 romp.
Brown and Hazel produced all 14 of the Clearfield’s points in that period.
The spread remained in the mid-twenties through the fourth quarter, with Glunt pulling his four seniors — Brown, Hazel, Myers and Dave McKenzie — shortly after Hazel’s transition layup made it 51-26 with 3:42 remaining.
They all made contributions in addition to points, Myers with a game-high 10 rebounds and two blocks, Brown with four rebounds, three assists and six steals, Hazel with six rebounds, two assists and two steals and McKenzie with seven rebounds.
The Bison wound up shooting 44.4 percent from the field, made all eight free throws and had a dozen more rebounds than the Owls.
Clearfield’s tough man defense held the visitors to 12 field goals in 60 attempts, a mere 20 percent.
Nate Higbie topped the Owls with eight points.
Far from the most impressive win the Bison have pocketed, it was good not to have to go to the title game with no games in three weeks.
“Two weeks off before you play a game, you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Glunt said. “We were concerned. And Bradford had games last week. They came ready to play. They’re a well-coached team. They attacked us.
“But we got better as the game went on.”
BRADFORD — 35
Adam Boyer 1 0-0 2, Donny Pattison 3 0-0 6, Tyler Gigliotti 2 0-0 5, Nate Higbie 3 0-0 8, Dan Manion 1 3-6 5, Deondre Terwilliger 0 3-4 3, Steven Knowlton 2 2-2 6, Nate Blauser 0 0-0 0, Peyton Manion 0 0-0 0, Cade Hayden 0 0-0 0, Blake Bryant 0 0-0 0, Dalton Feiro 0 0-0 0, Caleb Nuzzo 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 12 8-12 35.
CLEARFIELD — 59
Evan Brown 9 2-2 20, Reese Wilson 1 0-0 2, Dave McKenzie 0 0-0 0, Tommy Hazel 7 2-2 17, Will Myers 2 2-2 7, Jon Gates 1 2-2 5, Ryan Chew 0 0-0 0, Ethan McGinnis 3 0-0 6, Keegan Hess 0 0-0 0, Taye Lynch 0 0-0 0, Wyatt Porter 0 0-0 0, Cade Walker 0 0-0 0, Jarrit Wagner 1 0-0 2, Ryan Lazauskas 0 0-0 0, Barrett Kline 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 24 8-8 59.
Three-Point Field Goals – Bradford 3 (Gigliotti 1, Higbie 2); Clearfield 3 (Hazel 1, Myers 1, Gates 1).
Score by Quarters
Bradford 2 10 13 10 – 35
Clearfield 11 20 14 14 – 59
Officials – Bud Bifano, Chip Mason and Jamie Evans.
Bison Scoreboard:
Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
12/09 | @ Curwensville | 81 – 38 | 1 – 0 |
12/13 | CENTRAL | 53 – 41 | 2 – 0 |
12/16 | @ Huntingdon | 68 – 51 | 3 – 0 |
12/19 | @ Bellefonte | 56 – 33 | 4 – 0 |
12/22 | TYRONE | 65 – 40 | 5 – 0 |
12/29&30 | Purchase Line Christmas Tourney | ||
12/29 | vs. Northern Cambria | 82 – 23 | 6 – 0 |
12/30 | vs. Purchase Line | 65 – 45 | 7 – 0 |
01/03 | @ Brookville | 83 – 59 | 8 – 0 |
01/06 | @ Bald Eagle Area | 73 – 30 | 9 – 0 |
01/09 | @ Central | 46 – 57 | 9 – 1 |
01/11 | PENNS VALLEY | ppd. | 9 – 1 |
01/12 | PENNS VALLEY | 51 – 34 | 10 – 1 |
01/13 | @ Philipsburg-Osceola | 75 – 28 | 11 – 1 |
01/19 | CLARION-LIMESTONE | 82 – 48 | 12 – 1 |
01/20 | HUNTINGDON | 67 – 54 | 13 – 1 |
01/23 | @ DuBois | 62 – 47 | 14 – 1 |
01/25 | BELLEFONTE | 73 – 40 | 15 – 1 |
01/27 | @ Tyrone | 79 – 45 | 16 – 1 |
01/30 | PUNXSUTAWNEY | 65 – 41 | 17 – 1 |
01/31 | BALD EAGLE AREA | ppd. | 17 – 1 |
02/01 | BALD EAGLE AREA | 68 – 36 | 18 – 1 |
02/03 | @ Penns Valley | 66 – 55 | 19 – 1 |
02/06 | CURWENSVILLE | 85 – 37 | 20 – 1 |
02/08 | PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA | 78 – 47 | 21 – 1 |
02/22 | District 9 Semifinals | ||
02/22 | vs. BRADFORD | 59 – 35 | 22 – 1 |
TBD | District 9 Finals | ||
TBD | vs. Punxsutawney |