HYDE – The Penns Valley boys basketball squad put a blemish on the Clearfield season record Monday night, defeating the previously undefeated Bison 61-49.
The win leaves Clearfield (10-1) and Penns Valley (9-2) tied at the top of the Mountain League with identical 5-1 records.
It was Penns Valley that came ready to play on Clearfield’s home court, jumping out to a huge 31-11 halftime lead.
The Bison had a 5-4 lead during the first eight minutes of action before the Rams went on a 16-0 run that went into the second period.
Clearfield broke the run on a bucket by junior Cody Spaid, but coming right back Penns Valley created another run, 7-0, to lead 27-7 with 4:30 remaining before intermission.
The teams would trade two baskets each before the break that kept the Rams out in front by 20 over the somewhat stunned Clearfield team.
Down by 20 to start the third period Clearfield showed it would not go quietly into the night.
Sophomore Will Myers of the Bison, who was held scoreless in the first 16 minutes, hit two quick three pointers to start the second half cutting the Rams lead to 14 with a lot of time left, 7:08 in the third.
Clearfield shaved eight points off of the 20 point halftime deficit and at the end of three frames it was 46-34 still with Penns Valley ahead.
The Bison hit five treys in the third, three by Myers and one each by Tommy Hazel and Evan Brown to keep the hopes of Clearfield alive.
The furious comeback by Clearfield to get back into the contest continued right at the start of the final eight minutes as the Bison cut the Ram margin to 10 points, 48-38 with 5:50 left and then to under 10, at nine, with 4:52 to go thanks to another three by Hazel.
Hazel, who also was held scoreless in the first half, ended up as the high scorer for Clearfield with 14, while Myers added 10.
However, on this night of high school hoops, Penns Valley would not fold, and regained and maintained a double digit lead the rest of the battle.
Spaid, 6’ 7”, fouled out with 4:01 to go in the game which basically limited any serious inside game for Clearfield.
Erik Sellers, the lone Bison senior on the squad, also fouled out with 1:04 to go.
The Rams had three players in double figures, led by Logan Johnson with 17, and 6’ 7” Zach Engle along with Logan Pearce chipping in with 13 tallies.
The junior varsity game tipped off the evening’s action with Clearfield coming away with a 37-32 win over the Rams.
Next up for the Bison is a road game against Philipsburg-Osceola on Wednesday night. JV action starts at 6 pm, with the varsity contest to follow immediately.
Listen to the Bison-Mountie game on WOKW-FM, 102.9 with the pre-game show starting at 7:15 pm.
PENNS VALLEY – 61
Logan Johnson 6 3-3 17, Chase Collison 3 0-0 6, Logan Pearce 4 4-8 13, Sean Beamesderfer 3 2-4 8, Zach Engle 4 5-8 13, Andrew Tobias 1 0-0 2, Layne Zettle 1 0-0 2, Kevin Sweeley 0 0-0 0, Luke Snyder 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 22 14-23 61
CLEARFIELD – 49
Erik Sellers 4 1-2 9, David McKenzie 1 0-0 2, Tommy Hazel 4 3-4 14, Cody Spaid 4 1-4 9, Will Myers 3 1-2 10, Evan Brown 1 0-0 3, Caleb Strouse 0 2-2 2, Mason Royer 0 0-0 0, Reese Wilson 0 0-0 0, Carter Wood 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 17 8-14 49
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
PENNS VALLEY 17 14 15 15 61
CLEARFIELD 5 6 23 15 49
THREE-POINTERS: Johnson 2, Pearce, Hazel 3, Myers 3, Brown
OFFICIALS: Dave Blair, Bill Barton, Barry Abbott
Bison Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/09 | CENTRAL | 54 – 50 | 1 – 0 |
| 12/12 | @ Huntingdon | 73 – 64 | 2 – 0 |
| 12/15 | @ Curwensville | 71 – 40 | 3 – 0 |
| 12/17 | @ Bellefonte | 53 – 31 | 4 – 0 |
| 12/19 | TYRONE | 79 – 61 | 5 – 0 |
| 12/22 | PUNXSUTAWNEY | 57 – 47 | 6 – 0 |
| Purchase Line Tourney | |||
| 12/29 | vs. Purchase Line | 67 – 42 | 7 – 0 |
| 12/30 | vs. Bald Eagle Area | 77 – 72 | 8 – 0 |
| 01/06 | @ Bald Eagle Area | 79 – 56 | 9 – 0 |
| 01/07 | @ Brookville | 53 – 45 | 10 – 0 |
| 01/09 | PENNS VALLEY | ppd. | 10 – 0 |
| 01/12 | PENNS VALLEY | 49 – 61 | 10 – 1 |
| 01/14 | @ Philipsburg-Osceola | ||
| 01/16 | @ St. Marys | ||
| 01/19 | @ DuBois | ||
| 01/21 | @ Central | ||
| 01/23 | HUNTINGDON | ||
| 01/28 | BELLEFONTE | ||
| 01/30 | @ Tyrone | ||
| 02/03 | BALD EAGLE AREA | ||
| 02/06 | @ Penns Valley | ||
| 02/09 | CURWENSVILLE | ||
| 02/11 | PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA |