HYDE — The exciting Clearfield Area High School boys basketball team showcased its offensive prowess and tight defense in a season-opening 76-35 victory over backyard rival Curwensville Monday night.
Coach Nate Glunt’s Bison stampeded out of the chute to net 13 of 21 shots while limiting the undersized Golden Tide to 3-for-16 shooting in rolling to a 30-6 lead after one quarter and went on a 13-0 run fueled by turnovers during the second period to open a 53-14 bulge by halftime.
“I thought our pre-game was phenomenal,” said Glunt, a former Curwensville Area High School standout athlete. “The kids did a great job of being focused. We were ready to go. We were focused.
“There wasn’t a letdown because the kids knew Jake (Terry) wasn’t gonna play. When he comes back, he’s really gonna help Curwensville. He does a lot of things well.”
“The kids were intense when they needed to be, and they were enthusiastic. I thought we started out really strong defensively. Then we kind of had a letdown as the game went on.”
Not early on, though.
The Bison reflected their coach’s intensity with the non-league game’s first 12 points, including a pair of three-pointers by Tommy Hazel.
After that, it just was a matter of how many times the Bison would change their side of the scoreboard as they dictated the pace by pressuring the Golden Tide with in-your-face defense and then running at every opportunity.
Will Myers hit back-to-back three-pointers to trigger the spurt that had Clearfield in front 45-9 midway through the second period.
Offensively, the Bison shared the ball well and ended up with very good balance, Hazel and Cody Spaid recording 16 points apiece, Myers right behind with 15 with a trio of three-pointers and Dave McKenzie just missing double figures with nine.
Spaid had a double-double in the first half, finishing with 15 rebounds as the much taller Bison won the battle of the boards 47-23.
“We’re a much smaller team than we have been in the past, so boxing out and getting good position is so important,” Curwensville coach said. “We didn’t do a very good job of that.”
Shane Pentz was fully aware of what was in store for his team, especially with playmaker and leading 2014-15 scorer Terry still sidelined because of an injury he suffered in football.
“Clearfield, they’re an excellent team,” he said. “Nate’s done a great job with those kids. He’s had them since they were younger. They’re kind of mirror images of the player he was when he played.
“Except he’s got about 10 of them. They’re big, they’re strong and they’re athletic.
“We were just overmatched, and that’s the way it goes some nights.”
Quamone Newkirk, who assumed most of the ballhandling duty in Terry’s absence, was high for Curwensville with 10 points, most on very difficult drives.
The Golden Tide made only three of 16 attempts from the floor in the first quarter and found the Bison defense just as tough in the next eight minutes to finish the first half 6-for-27, just 22.2 percent.
“We looked a little intimidated, in all honesty,” Pentz said. “The second half, we competed a little harder.”
His team held its own after intermission with the combination of shooting by Clearfield’s seven-man nucleus tailing off in the third quarter and reserves for both squads logging the playing time in the fourth quarter.
The Bison wound up shooting 50.8 percent with 32 field goals in 63 attempts, while the Golden Tide hit 16 of 56 for 28.6 percent.
The lone negative for the Bison was a 4-for-19 performance at the foul line.
Glunt accepted some of the blame.
“To do that bad, that’s my fault,” he said. “I’ve gotta change how we practice, cause they’re better shooters than that.”
The Golden Tide didn’t get many good looks against the aggressive Bison defense, partially because of what they failed to do, according to Pentz.
“We didn’t set a lot of screens, and we looked panicked on offense,” he explained. “That’s something we’re gonna have to get corrected.”
“We just have to learn from this and get better.”
In the junior varsity game, Clearfield pulled away in the second half for a 59-46 win behind 11 points from Jake Sorbera, 10 from Ethan McGinnis and nine from Johny Gates. Curwensville got nine from Devan Barrett and eight from Jared Bakaysa.
Clearfield will be at home again Friday for its Mountain League opener against Huntingdon. A road game against Central scheduled for Wednesday has been moved to Feb. 1 because the Scarlet Dragons will be playing in the PIAA Class AA football semifinals this week.
Curwensville gets another tough test Tuesday when Brockway invades Patton Hall for their Allegheny Mountain League South Division lidlifter.
CURWENSVILLE — 35
Quamone Newkirk 5 0-3 10, Curtis Linsenbigler 1 0-0 3, Zach Marshall 1 0-2 3, Noah Strickland 0 0-0 0, R.J. Olson 3 0-0 6, Jared Bakaysa 0 0-0 0, Devan Barrett 2 0-0 5, Avery Francisco 1 0-0 2, Josh Terry 0 0-0 0, Ian Barrett 0 0-0 0, Christian Bakaysa 1 0-1 2, Nate McKenrick 2 0-0 4. TOTALS: 16 0-6 35.
CLEARFIELD — 76
Will Myers 6 0-0 15, Tommy Hazel 7 0-0 16, Cody Spaid 7 1-4 16, Dave McKenzie 4 0-2 9, Evan Brown 1 0-0 2, Caleb Strouse 0 1-4 1, Carter Wood 3 0-7 6, Johny Gates 0 0-0 0, Ethan McGinnis 1 0-0 2, Jake Sorbera 0 2-2 2, Wyatt Porter 1 0-0 2, Taye Lynch 1 0-0 2, Sammy Evans 1 0-0 3. TOTALS: 32 4-19 76.
Three-Pointers – Curwensville 3 (Linsenbigler 1, Marshall 1, D. Barrett 1); Clearfield 8 (Myers 3, Hazel 2, Spaid 1, McKenzie 1, Evans 1).
Score by Quarters
Curwensville 6 8 9 12 – 35
Clearfield 30 23 10 13 – 76
Officials – Scott Sullivan, Charles Pasternak and Emery Faith.