The Bisons haven\’t beat the Elk County Catholic Crusaders in their last nine tries, and after Tuesday night\’s game that number is ten. The Bisons who came out ready to play, jumped out early , but ultimately came short of a comeback.
According to Coach Campman this was a tough loss to take, \”We played well defensively; we were able to hold them to under 40 points, but we just didn\’t execute on the offensive end. They ran a triangle and two a lot on Matt (Shiner) and Jarrin (Campman) so they didn\’t get really any good looks, and when that happens everyone else needs to step up their game and they didn\’t tonight.\”
Clearfield was able to jump out to an early lead midway through the first quarter going up as many as six points, but as the first quarter started to dwindle down Elk County started to make a move. Clearfield used six of Shiners game high 14 points to take the lead. The Bisons ended the quarter up 10-9.
\”Matt played ok in the first half. He was able to move around without the ball and get some open looks, but he wasn\’t able to do that in the second half.\”
In the second quarter the Bisons seemed to stray from their offensive game plan of holding the ball and looking for a good shot as they started firing from all over. Even with the lack of offensive execution the Bison\’s only trailed 20-18 at the intermission.
\”It\’s my fault when we don\’t execute. I\’m the coach. I\’m the only one responsible for teaching them what to do. I hate it when people blame someone on our team for mistakes they made, its not their fault it\’s mine I should be teaching them not to make those mistakes.\” said Campman.
In the third quarter the Bisons would take the lead for just a few short seconds after a basket by Drew Hipps, but the Crusaders would come right back down and get a basket of their own to regain the lead. That would be the last time the Bisons would be in front as they trailed 24-23 at the end of the third period.
In the fourth quarter the Bisons found it tough to get open looks at the basket and were forced to fire up a few desperation three\’s. As the clocked ticked down the Bisons started to foul, making Elk County\’s victory seem larger than it was. In the end the Bisons had to succumb to the Crusaders 37-30.
\”Elk County plays fundamental basketball. They don\’t look to turn you over on defense they just look to keep you from scoring, so you can\’t turn the ball over against them. Tonight most of our turnovers were unforced just like a 5 second call we had late in the game. If we want to beat good teams we have to execute,\” commented Campman.
The Bisons will be back in action Friday night when they travel to Bradford to take on the Owls in a battle between first and second place in the District 9 AAA league.
Elk County Catholic-37
N. Wortman 0 0-0 0, Higgins 1 1-2 4, Haberberger 2 3-6 7, Mastrogiacomo 1 3-6 5, Nissel 1 0-2 3, Agosti 2 2-3 6, Bauer 0 0-0 0, R. Wortman 5 2-2 12, Garner 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 11-21 37.
N. Wortman 0 0-0 0, Higgins 1 1-2 4, Haberberger 2 3-6 7, Mastrogiacomo 1 3-6 5, Nissel 1 0-2 3, Agosti 2 2-3 6, Bauer 0 0-0 0, R. Wortman 5 2-2 12, Garner 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 11-21 37.
Clearfield-30
Hipps 1 0-1 2, Herrington 2 1-2 6, J. Campman 1 1-1 3, Shiner 6 0-0 14, Hryn 2 0-0 5, Kerr 0 0-0 0, Fox 0 0-0 0, Greenland 0 0-0 0, Ryan 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 2-4 30.
Three-pointers: Higgins, Nissel; Shiner 2, Herrington, Hryn.
Score by Quarters
ECC 9 11 4 13 – 37
Clearfield 10 8 5 7 – 30