The Bisons don’t typically play Monday night games, but if you were to ask Chad Zurat he may want every game to be played on a Monday. The Clearfield senior exploded for a career high 33 points against visiting Union in front of a small crowd at Arthur J. Weiss Gymnasium. Zurat dominated the game scored eight or more points in three of the four quarters en route to leading the Bisons to a 63-57 victory.
The Bisons (6-4) struggled early in the game with the quick and undersized Union line up. Clearfield came out in their 2-3 match up zone which has been a fixture Clearfield Head Coach Forrest Campman brought to the Bisons from his playing days under legendary Farrell High School Head Coach Ed McCluskey, who is considered the greatest coach in Pennsylvania history with seven state championships. Unfortunately for the Bisons the Union guard-oriented lineup created many open shots in the zone as they raced out to a 16-12 advantage. However the Bisons did gain some momentum with Zurat hitting a 75 footer at the break.
“I have been telling people since last summer that I have the best players in the District. Chad may not score a ton of points on every given night, but he was always be the best defender, and best rebounder on the court. If he had a better 3-point game people would always be talking about him because he would put up a lot of points, but that’s just a part of his game he needs to work on. Trey (Campman) and Chad can hit those long distance shots,” commented Campman. Zurat notched nine points in the first frame.
In the second quarter Zurat continued his dominance netting seven more points in the frame while holding District 9 leading scorer Scott Booth to only six points in the first half. As the Bisons looked to stretch the lead Campman got hot netting ninepoints in the period. On the night Campman (14 points) and Zurat combined to score 47 of the Bisons 63 points. Many believed coming in to the season that the two Bisons senior captains must score and Monday they did just that. At the half the Bisons found themselves sporting a 30-26 advantage.
“We had some trouble with Union’s quickness so we decided to switch from our matchup zone to man to man. We put Chad on the Booth kid and he shut him down, he did a great job. Once we switched we were able to force some turnovers,” said Campman.
In the third quarter the Bisons increased their lead to 46 to 39 with Zurat leading the way with eight more points in the quarter while senior three-point specialist Ben Johnson knocked down a trey.
In the fourth quarter Union made a little bit of a charge while the time ticked down. Trailing by as many as 15, Union was able to close the deficit to three points twice in the fourth quarter, but Clearfield was able to hang on for a 63-57 victory. Zurat chipped in nine more points to finish with his career high.
“Union was able to make it close by making some three’s, but usually those three’s don’t go in. When you’re down you know you can chuck up shots without a conscience because you know if they don’t go in you’re going to lose anyway so there’s no pressure,” commented Campman.
Clearfield will be back in action Wednesday as the Punxsutawney Chucks come to town with tipoff set for 7:30.
Clearfield 12-18-16-17 63
Union 16-10-13-18 57
Clearfield: Johnson 1 2-2 5, Peterson 0 0-0 0, Campman 4 4-5 14, Zurat 14 4-4 33, Redden 0 2-2 2, Mellgard 1 4-7 6, Frye 0 2-2 2, Bowman 0 1-2 1,Bell 0 0-0 0
Union: Smith 2 0-0 5, Pollock 3 1-4 9, Shawn Booth 1 0-0 3, Mortimer 0 2-4 2, Burns 0 0-0 0, Smith 3 3-4 12, Davis 2 0-6 4, Scott Booth 7 2-2 17, Corte 1 1-1 3, Johnston 1 0-0 2
