CLEARFIELD – The Bellefonte Red Raiders high school boys basketball team was victim number three for Clearfield Tuesday night on the Bison home court.
With the 44-30 victory Clearfield is now 3-0 on the young season.
And despite the double digit win the Red Raiders made it closer than it looked.
Nate Glunt, Clearfield head coach, wasn’t totally pleased however, and after the game commented, “We need to play harder than we did tonight. They (Bellefonte) out-rebounded us and we had the height advantage.”
Early on, Clearfield made it look like a romp was going to happen, jumping out to a 10-1 lead with 3:44 to go in the first quarter highlighted by two three pointers by Bison junior Will Myers.
Myers, who had five treys on the night, ended up as the game’s high scorer with 20. 12 of those tallies coming in the opening eight minutes of action.
With a first quarter margin of 18-5 Clearfield pumped its lead to 27-11 on a bucket by senior Cody Spaid with 1:13 to go before the halftime break.
Bellefonte, now 1-4, then settled down and became a little more patient on the offensive end late in the first half and early into the third with an 8-0 run that cut the Bison lead to 27-19.
Eight points, 29-21, was the closest the Red Raiders would come the rest of the contest as they made the Clearfield squad do some scrambling to stay in front.
The Bison would finish the third quarter on a 7-2 run of its own to go back on top by 13, 36-23, with just one quarter remaining. The 7-2 run was fueled by five from Myers and a bucket by Spaid.
Clearfield would maintain a double-digit bulge the remainder of the contest to pick up the home court victory.
Spaid chipped in with 18 points for Clearfield, with 12 coming in the second half and scoring all eight of the Bison fourth quarter points.
Bellefonte’s Brice Steiner, a senior, paced his teams offense with 13 tallies.
On the night Clearfield attempted just one free throw. Myers hit a charity toss with 2:46 left in the first quarter to complete a three-point play.
Even though Clearfield held the Red Raiders to just 30 points Glunt sees room for improvement, “I know that we gave up just 30 points, but I also know that we need to improve defensively. We gave up too many good looks to Bellefonte tonight.”
In junior varsity action it was Bellefonte coming out on top, 44-41.
The Bison are home again Wednesday night when they entertain the visiting St. Mary’s Flying Dutch. The junior varsity game starts at 6 pm with the varsity contest to immediately follow.
Glunt closed by talking about the St. Mary’s team, “They are a really improved team this season. They bring a different type of playing style for us to get ready for in a quick turn around.”
BELLEFONTE – 30
Hunter Knisley 3 2-2 9, Tyler Kreger 0 0-0 0, Kellen Moss 2 0-0 4, Brice Steiner 5 3-7 13, Caleb Rockey 1 0-0 2, Cade Fortney 1 0-0 2, TOTALS – 12 5-9 30
CLEARFIELD – 44
Evan Brown 1 0-0 2, David McKenzie 1 0-0 2, Tommy Hazel 1 0-0 2, Cody Spaid 9 0-0 18, Will Myers 7 1-1 20, Caleb Strouse 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 19 1-1 44
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
BELLEFONTE 5 10 8 7 30
CLEARFIELD 18 9 9 8 44
THREE-POINTERS: Myers 5, Knisley
OFFICIALS: Roddy Hartle, Roger Walter, Scott Ruffner