Bald Eagle — Clearfield came out on fire for the third straight game only to struggle to hang to that lead in the second half. The Bisons jumped out early going on a 10-0 run fueled by Jarrin Campman, Matt Shiner, and Todd Hryn to start the game and finish the 1st quarter with a lead of 20-6.
The hot shooting of the Bisons continued into the second quarter helping to add on another 20 points and go up 40-25 at the half. Things started off sluggish for the Bisons in the second half taking almost three minutes to score their first basket. It was a different story for Bald Eagle who used a mix of pressure defense and solid shooting to outscore the Bisons in the third period and bring the game within 51-44. Even with the second half struggles, Clearfield was able to persevere through the late minutes of the game and come out on top with the 70-65 victory.
When it comes to Clearfield struggling in the middle of games Coach Campman has no idea where it comes from, but had this to say, “Every game has been like Groundhog day we jump out to an early lead, and end up getting in foul trouble and struggling in the second half. We are lucky that Bald Eagle didn’t shoot well from the line or it would have been a different game. They were able to play with out inhibition and just chuck up shots that you wouldn’t normally take, and they made them. It’s easy to say Bald Eagle played their best game of the season tonight. If we could just play half of the game the way we do for the first three minutes we would be fine.”
Clearfield was able to get good play once again from their three headed scoring monster of Campman, Hryn, and Shiner. Shiner led all scorers with 23 points and Campman and Hryn chipped in with 15 and 21 points respectively. “Todd Hryn had a really good night numbers wise tonight scoring 21 points and having around 20 rebounds, but he still had some mistakes. Matt is a really good shooter and he was able to get some open looks at the basket, and Jarrin played well again tonight being able to handle their (Bald Eagle) pressure,” said Campman
Clearfield struggled to get good minutes from players off the bench and it showed how much it hurt the Bisons down the stretch. “Our bench did not play well tonight; we need to get better production off the bench. They need to be able to give the starters a break and keep a hold of the lead, and they weren’t able to do that tonight,” commented Campman.
“We put up 70 points tonight, and we have never had a team score like this team does since I have been here. We just need to limit our mistakes and eliminate our dry spells in our games and we will be ok,” commented Coach Campman on the play of his young squad.
The Bisons will be back in action on Thursday night when they travel to Johnsonburg to take on the Rams with a 7:00 varsity tip-off.
Clearfield 70
Herrington 0 2-2 2, Ryan 0 0-0 0, Greenland 1 0-0 2, Fox 0 0-0 0, Campman 4 5-8 15, Shiner 7 4-4 23, Hryn 7 5-7 21, Kerr 0 0-0 0, Hipps 2 3-4 7
Bald Eagle 65
Moyer 8 4-6 22, Goerlich 6 2-6 17, Fayman 4 0-2 8, Noll 4 1-6 10, 1 1-3 3, Butterworth 0 0-0 0, Dropcha 0 0-0 0, Taylor 0 0-0 0, Salvanish 1 3-4 5
3 pointers: Clearfield 9 (Shiner 5, Campman 2, Hryn 2), Bald Eagle 6 (Goerlich 3, Moyer 2, Noll 1)
Score by Quarters
Clearfield 20-20-11-19
Bald Eagle 6-19-19-20Tiffany Pollard