HYDE-After one a days rest from barely beating out cross-town rival Curwensville in overtime, head coach Forrest Campman brought his Clearfield Bison basketball team back to the Arthur J. Weiss Gymnasium to face off against the Crusaders of Elk County Catholic.
No one was anticipating the action that happened on the court. The Bisons and Crusaders went back and forth in every aspect of the game. Both kept a quick pace, each trying to keep their players fresh with multiple substitutions. The coaches were emotional and the score was close. It was so close that 32 minutes was not enough to decide the winner. The two sides went to a 32-32 tie after regulation, and for the second consecutive night, the Bisons were in an overtime game.
Unfortunately, this game did not have as happy an ending as the team would have liked. Clearfield could not keep the momentum they had at the end of the fourth quarter, not scoring a single point in the extra four minutes, as Elk County Catholic pulled out to the 39-32 victory.
The gym was packed with fans from both sides, and right from the opening tip off the pace was fast and never let up. Clearfield was able to jump out to a quick lead by the end of the first quarter as they held the Crusaders to just 3 of 9 from the floor. However, Elk County Catholic began turning up the heat in the second, forcing mistakes and many fouls by the Bisons. Roby Wortman and Tony Chiodo got on a roll in the second quarter as they each scored four a piece while getting critical rebounds. Wortman would lead the Crusaders with 15 points while Chiodo added another ten.
Clearfield battled back and kept a 19-15 lead heading into the break.
In the second half, it was all about possession as the two teams traded turnovers and fouls. This slowed the pace of both teams down, but Clearfield soon found themselves in a hole. After using three timeouts in the first half, Coach Campman used his final two in a matter of 30 seconds during the third quarter following the Crusaders making three key field goals. No timeouts meant he would have to wait for possession calls and free throws to substitute in his fresh players.
Even then that began to be a problem as both Ben Johnson and Andrew Redden fouled out in the final period after the Crusaders went into the lead.
However, Clearfield just wouldn’t go away as they began forcing tough shots by the Crusaders, and then got to the free throw line to keep the game close.
Chad Zurat came up huge on the line as he put down four shots, adding to his team-high 14 points. He also led the team in rebounds with nine.
With just over three minutes left, the Crusaders got the ball on the inbounds pass, but they decided to pull a trick that fans saw in a Lady Bison game not long ago and simply stood on the ball, not even passing it, while the Bisons looked on and got prepared. The fans began getting aggravated and started making noise.
Then, Campman gave the signal with just over a minute left to begin the pressure defense. The tight coverage forced a few bad passes and a huge turnover for the Bisons. That led to the lone basket for Clearfield to tie the game at 32. On the next possession, the teams went to a jump ball, with Clearfield getting the possession. With less than ten seconds remaining it was Curtis Frye going for the basket inside, and the Crusaders fouled him with o.3 seconds remaining on the clock.
The foul would be a 1-and-1, with a made shot sealing the victory. But, Frye’s shot hit off the back of the basket, and the game went to overtime.
That shot seemed to take all the wind out of the sails for Clearfield as in overtime they could not get anything going. Close shots bounced off the backboard and out, long-range attempts went for naught, and the team only got two rebounds compared to Elk County Catholic’s five.
Wortman, Joe Jacob and Kyle Detsch all hit free throws in the overtime period, with Wortman adding an extra bucket for good measure as the Crusaders marched on to their 18th win on the season.
Clearfield managed to squeak out a win in the junior varsity game by a score of 31-26.
The Bisons (12-7) don’t have much time to rest again as they are back on the court tomorrow night as they travel to Punxsutawney to face the Chucks. Tip off is set for 6 p.m. with the jayvee game to begin the evening’s festivities. The varsity match-up will follow approximately 15 minutes following the conclusion of that game.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Elk County Catholic 7 8 10 7 7 39
Clearfield 13 6 7 6 0 32
GAME STATISTICS
Two-Point Shots: ECC-11/20 CF-8/22
Three-Point Shots: ECC-1/10 CF-3/9
Rebounds: ECC-16 CF-16
Turnovers: ECC-12 CF-10
Team Fouls: ECC-13 CF-23
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Elk County Catholic 39
Pearsall 0 0-0 0, Herzing 2 0-0 4, Wehler 0 0-0 0, Chiodo 3 3-4 10, Detsch 1 5-7 7, Jacob 0 3-4 3, Hardy 0 0-0 0, Wortman 6 3-4 15, Simons 0 0-0 0, Daghir 0 0-0 0, Wachter 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 14-19 39
Clearfield 32
Johnson 3 0-0 8, Peterson 1 0-0 2, Zurat 4 4-7 14, Mellgard 0 0-0 0, Frye 1 2-3 4, Bowman 2 0-0 4, Bell 0 0-0 0, Hogue 0 0-0 0, Redden 0 0-0 0. Totals 11 6-10 32
Three-Point Buckets: ECC-Chiodo CF-Johnson (2), Zurat
Foul Outs: ECC-None CF-Johson, Redden