HYDE — In a short period of time, the Clearfield Bison basketball team has become a squad that many are watching, and notice. In his inaugural year as head coach, Nate Glunt led the team to a district title, and a 20-win season. His team for the 2015-2016 season started out the new campaign the exact same way as they did a year ago, being unbeaten before the Christmas holiday.
A night after a low-scoring affair against Bellefonte, Clearfield took to their home court again, hoping to carry the momentum of their victory. The task would be a challenge, because despite their 1-3 record, the visiting St. Mary’s Flying Dutch were a different team, and were going to put the pressure on.
The crowd inside the Bison Gymnasium got a battle, a see-saw contest that saw high scoring, physicality, and emotion. That emotion came into play as it gave the home squad motivation. The team was feeling it, as were the fans, and Clearfield delivered. Of all the players that took to the court, every one of them would contribute to the score, and defensively caused chaos for the visiting Dutch.
At the final buzzer, the unbeaten season remained as Clearfield was on the better end of a 68-59 final.
Glunt afterwards, before mentioning any of his players, wanted to thank the people outside of the team that made the game special.
“Great atmosphere tonight. Just awesome. A great atmosphere for a Wednesday night, a packed house…I’m so thankful for the community supporting us like this,” Glunt said. “To see the support in here tonight, it was hot, but it was fun.”
The crowd got its money’s worth, as both teams were going tooth-and-nail from the opening tip.
St. Mary’s would be the ones that started the game on a roll, pulling out to an early 12-3 lead, but slowly the home squad began to catch up, and before the first quarter ended they would pull to within one. In the second quarter, the teams would trade the lead twice on each side, but Clearfield was keeping it close. Defensively they were contesting shots, but Parker Housler was making shots for the visiting squad. In the first half he would score 18 of his team-high 23 points. Teammate Jefferson Waylor was not scoring points, but he was accounting for many of the assists, leading the team with eight.
Glunt was quick to point out that Waylor and Jefferson were big in keeping St. Mary’s in the game early.
“They came out and punched first, so to speak. We fought back, got the lead, and from that point it was back-and-forth the entire time. St. Mary’s is an excellent team. I thought we played great defensively, they just made some tough shots. It was a heck of a game,” Glunt said. “They have two awesome guards. They make tough shots, and handle the ball well to get to the basket, and are athletic. That’s probably the best guard we’ll see all season.”
One thing St. Mary’s was able to do was neutralize the Bison’s starting center, Cody Spaid. He was limited to only a free throw in the first half, but the pressure they kept on him put the Bison in a situation where he was fouling, and by early in the third quarter he was in danger of being done for the game, as he picked up his fourth foul with over six minutes left in the third.
Glunt was forced to pull him out to save him from being taken out with five fouls, but still felt his biggest player was able to help when needed.
“Cody got into some foul trouble. But when he was in there, I still thought he played well. He was able to do some nice things and contribute, but when you get into foul trouble it makes it really tough,” Glunt said. “When he got that fourth foul, I got him out for the rest of the third quarter. But I still thought he played really well.”
Spaid ended the night with only three points, all from the charity stripe, and five rebounds.
However, the players that made up for the missing piece of the puzzle were Will Myers and Tommy Hazel. Combined, the two accounted for 47 points and 16 rebounds. Hazel would account for three blocks, including one at the baseline that denied a three-point shot from Waylor, firing up the team and the fans.
“Tommy has athleticism where he looks like he’s cruising, but he’s gifted where he has that other gear. It was fun to watch,” Glunt said.
Hazel would be part of a run in the third quarter that saw the lead extend into double digits, a run that started with big points from Ryan Lezzer, who came off the bench for the first time this season, going 2-for-2 shooting on the night.
“When we got into the flow of the game, we brought Ryan in, he’s able to make things happen. He’s so athletic, so explosive, he’s able to make it work,” Glunt said. “I wanted to get him in last night (against Bellefonte), but it just didn’t work out. I probably should have, but tonight we didn’t have Carter (Wood) here, but we have that depth so he was able to come in.
“He’s able to run the floor. It’s nice in basketball as he can run a quick fly like in football.”
Compared to the previous night’s contest against Bellefonte, Clearfield was facing a type of playing style that was more what they practice and play; a style that has a lot of speed, quick decisions, and up-tempo design. Despite the win on Tuesday, Glunt felt that the game wasn’t their best for being this early, and even though they won that game, Wednesday’s game was more what they are built for.
“Bellefonte plays a different style. They are extremely methodical where they’re just going to work for a good shot. They may hold the ball for 50 seconds, so even though we held them to 30 points, I didn’t think we played good defense,” Glunt said. “We scored 44, but that’s not our style. Tonight, the faster tempo suited us.”
Clearfield was on the losing end of the jayvee game that kicked off the night in a 44-42 final, another game that went back-and-forth the entire night.
Now at 4-0, Glunt is ready to look to the next game, which is coming up on Friday night as the team will be on the road facing off with Tyrone, a team that a year ago gave them two major challenges on the year in the Mountain League.
“Friday is going to be another battle,” Glunt said. “They (Tyrone) have two similar guards. They’re athletic and do some nice things. They’re a different challenge defensively as far as what they’ll throw at us.
Tip off is at 6 p.m. for the jayvee squad, with the varsity contest to follow. The next Bison home game is not until the new year when they host Brookville on January 5.
SCORE BY QUARTER
St. Marys 19 9 15 16 – 59
Clearfield 18 18 15 17 – 68
St. Mary’s 59
Vallone 0 0-0 0, N. Bauer 1 1-1 3, Housler 7 5-7 23, Robinson 0 0-0 0, Schieber 0 0-0 0, Romain 3 0-0 9, Auman 0 0-0 0, Waylor 4 1-1 11, Schneiter 1 0-0 2, Lanzle 1 0-0 2, B. Bauer 1 2-2 5, Marconi 2 0-0 4, Senett 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 20 9-11 59.
Clearfield 68
McGinnis 0 0-0 0, Evans 0 0-0 0, Lezzer 2 0-0 4, Gates 0 0-0 0, Brown 2 1-2 5, Lynch 0 0-0 0, Strouse 0 3-7 3, Porter 0 0-0 0, McKenzie 3 0-0 6, Hazel 8 1-1 21, Sorbera 0 0-0 0, Spaid 0 3-4 3, Myers 9 4-4 26. TOTALS 25 12-16 68.
GAME STATISTICS
St. Mary’s/Clearfield
Team Rebounds: 23/33
Turnovers: 16/14
Team Fouls: 16/17
Field Goals: 20-56/25-55
Three-Point Shots: Waylor (2), Housler (4), B. Bauer, Romain (3); Myers (4), Hazel (4)