HYDE – The Clearfield Area High School cagers wasted another solid defensive effort because they couldn’t put the ball through the Weiss Gym hoops Friday night.
Lewistown didn’t look like the team that had finished strong to knock off previously-undefeated Huntingdon 59-47 Wednesday, but the Panthers got their act together in time to make the Bisons pay for another inept shooting performance.
The Bisons experienced dry spells in every quarter, with scoring droughts in the last two periods totaling more than 11½ minutes, and wound up on the short end of a 35-25 Mountain League crossover yawner.
“We played a great defensive game and we battled on the boards, and there’s a team that just beat Huntingdon, who’s the No. 1 team in the league, by 12,” coach Forrest Campman said after Clearfield’s third loss in five days. “But we just can’t score.”
Robbie Myers provided almost half of the Bisons’ points with six of their 11 field goals.
He missed only one shot, but his teammates really struggled, so the final totals were 11-for-42 for 26.2 percent.
The Panthers weren’t burning the cords, either, hitting just 10 of 33 attempts for 30.3 percent. They made three shots in the third quarter and none in the last eight minutes when they kept the Bisons at bay with 12 free throws in 15 trips to the foul line.
“We had them defended well,” Campman said. “We stopped them from getting layups, knew that No. 10 (Cy Treaster) was their shooter and pretty much got to him. They made their 10-footers, the few that they had.
“We probably got better shots than they had.”
However, the Bisons were unable to turn them into enough points.
With both teams sitting in zones and content to pass the ball around the perimeter, often turning the ball over without getting off a shot, fans didn’t have to wait long to learn the first team to 30 probably would win.
Andrew Redden’s three-pointer from the left corner broke the ice 2:18 after the opening tip, and Jack Mellgard’s trey from outside nearly four minutes later had Clearfield on top 6-0 before Ted Wilson registered Lewistown’s first points with a high bank shot.
Myers powered up a shot and Curtis Frye turned a bad Panther pass into a layup to make it 10-2 two minutes into the second quarter.
Then, two drives by Dan Wheeler, one resulting in a reverse layup, keyed an 11-0 Lewistown run that Treaster punctuated with a jumper from behind the arc with 2:01 left in the half.
A putback by Myers at the buzzer should have given the Bisons some momentum going to the second half down only 15-14.
It didn’t.
“I’ve always felt the first three minutes of the second half are the most important in basketball games,” Campman said. “Like last game, we fought back in the first half to get it down to two, and we don’t score and they (Bellefonte) run off 15 straight points.”
The lone points in the first 3:48 of the third quarter came on Wheeler’s pass to a wide open Wilson under the basket, so the Bisons were still in it.
Even though they didn’t score until Mellgard hopped into the lane for a short jumper with 1:47 left in the period, they faced only a three-point deficit, 23-20, when Myers tipped in a missed shot with two ticks on the clock.
The fourth quarter was eerily similar to the third period, though, in that Clearfield didn’t score for 6:09 but was down just 28-22 when Myers converted an offensive rebound into points and 30-25 when Christian Lezzer swished a three from the left wing with 35 second remaining.
Forced to foul, the Bisons could only watch as the Panthers made it a deceiving 10-point win, their sixth in a row, with five more free throws.
The 6-3 Wilson paced Lewistown (9-4) with 12 points and eight rebounds. Wheeler chipped in nine points.
Clearfield was outrebounded 25-18, Myers high with six, and had 21 turnovers, one more than Lewistown.
“We don’t handle the ball well enough, so we can’t dribble penetrate,” Campman said. “And don’t ask me where we throw some of our passes. There’s some things you just can’t work on. We’ve just gotta make better decisions.
“I’m always proud of their effort, and the way we battle defensively, but there are two parts to every game.
“We just don’t have the offensive side right now.”
The Bisons, 2-6 in the ML-Allegheny Division and 2-9 overall, will play two more ML-Nittany Division teams next week, Wednesday at Penns Valley and Friday at home against Bald Eagle Area.
In the prelim, the Lewistown junior varsity claimed a 44-35 win. Trey Jordan scored 14 points for Clearfield.
LEWISTOWN — 35
Cy Treaster 2 1-2 6, Mitch Whelman 1 2-3 5, Tyler Gantz 0 2-2 2, Dan Wheeler 3 3-6 9, Ted Wilson 4 4-4 12, Omari Perryman 0 1-2 1, Curtis Jezerick 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 10 13-19 35.
CLEARFIELD — 25
Curtis Frye 1 0-0 2, Andrew Redden 1 0-0 3, Jack Mellgard 2 0-0 5, Derek Morgan 0 0-0 0, Robbie Myers 6 0-1 12, Beau Swales 0 0-0 0, Christian Lezzer 1 0-0 3, Vaughn Metz 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 11 0-1 25.
Three-Point Field Goals – Lewistown 2 (Treaster, Whelman); Clearfield 3 (Redden, Mellgard, Lezzer).
Score by Quarters
Lewistown 2 13 8 12 – 35
Clearfield 6 8 6 5 – 25
Officials – Wes Sinclair, Greg Sipos, Dan Petroff.
