SPRING MILLS — The Clearfield Area High School boys basketball team couldn’t find the bottom of the basket all night and went down to a 44-23 defeat at the hands of homestanding Penns Valley Friday.
The Bison’s problems were compounded when senior Trey Jordan, their leading scorer with an 18.4 average, was sidelined early in the third quarter of the Mountain League game because of a serious ankle injury.
And the Bison were catching the Rams on the rebound after back-to-back losses to a pair of undefeated teams, Bald Eagle Area and Bellwood-Antis, earlier in the week.
Clearfield (3-8, 1-5 ML) was leading 5-4 midway through the first period before Penns Valley (7-3, 5-1) went on an 11-0 run.
The Rams maintained their 10-point lead at intermission, but coach Forrest Campman’s Bison opened the second half with four points to make it a 22-16 game when Jordan sustained his injury.
Clearfield scored just seven points the rest of the way.
Campman credited Penns Valley’s triangle-and-two defense that was employed to keep Jordan and Christian Lezzer, the No. 2 Bison pointmaker, in check.
“That gave us trouble because it took away our outside shooters,” he said. “They tagged Lezzer and Jordan and then Lezzer and (Seth) Beardsley.”
Jordan and Beardsley, who hit a pair of three-pointers, had six points apiece for the Bison, who have lost four games in a row.
For Penns Valley, a pair of junior forwards matched Clearfield’s output, Luke Weaver netting 12 points and Cameron Tobias sinking 11.
“They’re very deliberate offensively, so you’ve gotta get ahead of them,” Campman said. “Believe me, we had the shots. We just couldn’t shoot tonight.”
The Bison junior varsity got eight points from Erik Sellers in a 37-22 setback.
Clearfield’ next game is Tuesday at home against Philipsburg-Osceola.
Mountain League standings – Bald Eagle Area 6-0, Tyrone 5-1, Penns Valley 5-1, Central 3-3, Bellefonte 2-4, Clearfield 1-5, Philipsburg-Osceola 1-5, Huntingdon 1-5.
CLEARFIELD — 23
Christian Lezzer 1 1-2 3, Seth Beardsley 2 0-0 6, Wyatt Westen 0 0-2 0, Trey Jordan 3 0-0 6, Jon Janocko 1 0-2 2, Seth Ford 0 0-0 0, Andy Brown 1 0-1 2, Erik Sellers 2 0-0 4, Spencer Herrington 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 10 1-7 23.
PENNS VALLEY — 44
Ben Alexander 0 0-0 0, Logan Johnson 2 1-2 6, Dalton Ulmanic 1 0-0 3, John Ott 0 0-0 0, Logan Pearce 2 0-0 6, Will Jackson 3 0-0 6, Luke Weaver 5 2-4 12, Cameron Tobias 4 1-2 11, Zach Engle 0 0-0 0, Sean Beamesderfer 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 17 4-8 44.
Three-Point Field Goals – Clearfield 2 (Beardsley 2); Penns Valley 6 (Johnson, Ulmanic, Pearce 2, Tobias 2).
Score by Quarters
Clearfield 5 7 6 5 – 23
Penns Valley 15 7 14 8 – 44
Bison Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/07 | CURWENSVILLE | ppd. | 0 – 0 |
| 12/10 | CURWENSVILLE | 42 – 37 | 1 – 0 |
| 12/12 | @ Central | 29 – 50 | 1 – 1 |
| 12/14 | HUNTINGDON | 55 – 61 | 1 – 2 |
| 12/18 | @ Bald Eagle Area | 50 – 79 | 1 – 3 |
| 12/21 | @ Bellefonte | 51-50 2ot | 2 – 3 |
| @ PL Lions Club Tourney | |||
| 12/27 | vs. Harmony | 41 – 48 | 2 – 4 |
| 12/28 | vs. Purchase Line | 85 – 63 | 3 – 4 |
| 01/04 | PUNXSUTAWNEY | 31 – 69 | 3 – 5 |
| 01/07 | BROOKVILLE | 42 – 43 | 3 – 6 |
| 01/08 | TYRONE | 52 – 61 | 3 – 7 |
| 01/11 | @ Penns Valley | 23 – 44 | 3 – 8 |
| 01/15 | PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA |