It’s not often that you can have one of your lowest scoring outputs of the season and your two top scorers held to a combined 10 points and you still come away with a 12 point victory. Clearfield was able to overcome their lack of scoring and come away with their first District 9 AAA Championship Title in the last 10 years with a 49-37 victory over the second seeded Dutch of St. Marys.
Though Clearfield struggled a majority of the game offensively, they put together short lived runs that helped them come away with the win. The runs were much in part sparked by senior point guard Parker Herrington who played his second great game back to back leading all scorers with 16 points and coming up with clutch defensive plays.
The Dutch used the same gimmick \”triangle and two\” defense on Jarrin Campman and Matt Shiner that most opponents have been showing late in the season to try and keep the Bisons duo from scoring, and it worked until late in the fourth frame where Shiner and Campman each made clutch buckets.
Things started off slowly in the first with each team still being in single digits with just a little over two minutes remaining before the Bisons finally hit consecutive buckets and closed out the first quarter with a 13-8 lead.
In the second quarter the scoring seemed much more like a football game rather than round ball with St. Marys outscoring Clearfield in the quarter 12-3. Trey Campman hit the lone shot for the Bisons in the period knocking down a three. At the intermission the Bisons found themselves down 20-16, the first time they have trailed against a league opponent at half time in the second half of their schedule.
Whatever Coach Campman said in the locker room must have worked as the Bisons finally regained the lead with 4:46 remaining in the third quarter and never looked back. Herrington had a monster third quarter scoring 10 points in the frame, while Cruise Kerr continued to manhandle the inside men of St. Marys for rebounds.
In the fourth quarter the Bisons slowly built their lead to 12 and held the ball for the final 1:10 of the game while the Clearfield fans stood and applauded the efforts of the squad as they hoisted their first District Title banner under head coach Forrest Campman.
The Bisons will be back in action either next Friday or Saturday taking on the 5th seed out the WPIAL in the PIAA State Championships opening round.
Clearfield – 49
Shiner 3 1-2 8, J. Campman 1 0-2 2, T. Campman 3 1-2 9, Zurat 1 0-0 2, Herrington 5 4-5 16, Kerr 1 3-4 5, Priester 1 3-4 5, Wilson 0 2-2 2
St. Marys – 37
Guiddo 0 1-2 1,B. Quiggle 3 0-0 8, Welder 5 3-3 15, Mulcalhy 3 0-1 6, Pettrochi 0 2-4 2, Cogan 0 3-8 3, J. Quiggle 1 0-0 2