CLARION – The Bradford Owls boys basketball team won for the third time this season over the Clearfield Bisons on Saturday afternoon at Clarion University, 56-28. With the victory at Waldo S. Tippin Gymnasium the Owls captured the 2010 District 9 AAA title.
The triumph gave the Owls their eighth District 9 AAA championship in the past ten years.
As in the first two games of the regular season the Owls jumped out to a fast start and never were truly threatened by the defending district champion Bisons.
Head coach Forrest Campman of Clearfield spoke about the outcome, “I thought we did everything we wanted to do against them in the first half. We played good defense but on the offensive side we just couldn’t get our shots to fall.”
Then the Bison boss added, “We really match up poorly with Bradford and then they just shut us down.”
Clearfield scored the first bucket of the contest when senior Chad Zurat put the Bisons up 2-0 with about one minute gone in the opening period. The Owls immediately responded with a 9-0 run to take control of the first eight minutes.
Clearfield would not score their next field goal until the 5:34 mark of the second frame as Ben Johnson hit for the Bisons. Clearfield went approximately nine and half minutes without a score before Johnson ended the drought.
In the meantime the Owls went on a 20-1 romp to take total control and leaving them in command at the half 26-11.
Johnson hit a three pointer to pull the Bison to within fourteen at 28-14 with 6:10 to play in the third period. Then off the bench for Bradford, senior Jimmy Grove banged in two threes to dash any comeback hopes for Clearfield.
When Evan Kline scored four quick points for the Owls to start the fourth period they had the Bisons doubled at 42-21 with seven minutes left in the game. At that point all that was left to resolve was the final score and then the awards ceremony.
Bradford was led by Dave Fuhrman with 16 and Ryan Mackey, scoring 15. Clearfield had Zurat dumping in 15. Zurat also had an outstanding day at the free throw line, going 9 for 11.
The Bisons shot 20% (7-35) on the afternoon while the Owls were 22 for 49 for 45%. Clearfield also had just one assist and were out-rebounded 37-25.
Bradford, 21-3, winners of seventeen straight, will now progress to the first round of the PIAA playoffs next Friday against the number five team out of District 7 (WPIAL).
The Bisons, 13-9, move on to the play-in round this coming Tuesday against Erie Central, the District 10 number three squad. The sites and times of these two games have yet to be determined.
Campman talked about the next outing for Clearfield saying, “We’ll practice Sunday and Monday and prepare for our next game. We hope that some things that we do they haven’t seen before and that could help us.”
Follow Bison basketball on WOKW-FM, 102.9, this Tuesday. Tune in to OK 102.9 for details about the next Bison game.
CLEARFIELD – Ben Johnson 3 0-0 7, Trey Campman 0 1-2 1, Chad Zurat 3 9-11 15, John Mellgard 0 0-1 0, Jason Bowman 0 1-2 1, Curtis Bell 1 0-0 2, Andrew Redden 0 0-2 0, Curtis Frye 0 0-0 0, Luke Peterson 0 1-2 1, Zach Fannin 0 0-0 0, Vaughn Metz 0 1-2 1, Robert Myers 0 0-0 0, Beau Swales 0 0-0 0, TOTALS 7 13-22 28
BRADFORD – Matt White 0 0-0 0, Michael White 2 2-3 7, Ryan Mackey 6 3-3 15, Evan Kline 4 0-0 8, David Fuhrman 6 0-0 16, Colton Holzwarth 1 0-0 2, Cody Faucher 0 0-0 0, Jimmy Grove 3 0-0 8, Charles Fair 0 0-1 0, Kyle Viola 0 0-0 0, Andy Eliason 0 0-0 0, Connor Borowski 0 0-0 0, Cody Mascho 0 0-0 0, TOTALS 22 5-7 56
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
CLEARFIELD 3 8 10 7 28
BRADFORD 14 12 12 18 56
THREE-POINTERS: CLEARFIELD – 1 Johnson BRADFORD – 7 Fuhrman 4, Grove 2, Michael White
OFFICIALS: Scott Sullivan, David Blair and Chuck Pasternak
