HYDE — The high-scoring Clearfield Bison will have home-court advantage Tuesday night when they begin their bid to repeat as District 9 Class AAA boys basketball champions.
Seeded No. 1 in the four-team bracket, coach Nate Glunt’s Mountain League kings will put a 20-2 record on the line against Bradford in Bison Gym.
Tipoff for the game will be at 7 p.m. for Clearfield’s first home playoff game since the 2008-09 Bison defeated Bradford 74-48 en route to the district title.
Glunt has been emphasizing to his team not to take the Owls lightly.
“They start three sophomores and a junior and weren’t really good to start the year, but they’ve come on at the end of the season,” he said.
Bradford knocked off No. 2 seed St. Marys twice, 46-41 and 69-65, during a stretch of eight wins in 11 games to go over .500 at 10-9 before finishing with losses to Brookville 57-56, undefeated Elk County Catholic 55-32 and No. 3 seed Punxsutawney 63-51.
Against Punxsy, which handed the Bison their first setback 66-48 Dec. 21, the Owls trailed only 50-47 with less than four minutes remaining before the Chucks pulled away via free throws.
A trio of sophomores top the deliberate offense of the Owls, who average only 44 points a game.
Deondre Terwilliger is high with 10.4 points per game, according to D9Sports.com statistics, while John Eakin and Andy Pantuso are averaging 8.6 and 7.0, respectively.
“They have two excellent guards,” Glunt said. “Terwilliger is a good ballhandler and shoots well, while Pantuso gets to the basket at will most of the time.”
Eakin is 6-2, but Glunt stated he plays taller than that.
“He’s a wide body and an incredible athlete,” the Bison coach stated. “He posts up some, but he gets a lot of second-chance opportunities or by having Pantuso drive and dish off to him.”
Senior Tyler Nuzzo and junior Nate Higbie have been the other Bradford starters.
Patience will be important for the Bison until, and if, they can force the Owls out of their slow tempo.
“They’re pretty methodical on offense and don’t take bad shots,” Glunt said. “They play pretty solid defense, too. Eakin is a force on the boards, making it hard to get second chances.”
To counter, the Bison must utilize their distinct height advantage to emerge with a significant edge in rebounds to jumpstart their up-tempo offense that features four players averaging in double figures.
While Eakin and the 6-1 Pantuso are only Owls who top six feet, Clearfield’s shortest starter is junior guard Evan Brown (10.9 ppg) at 6-1.
Senior center Cody Spaid (11.2 ppg) is 6-7, junior forward Will Myers (17.4 ppg) and junior guard Tommy Hazel are 6-3 and junior guard Dave McKenzie (6.3 ppg) is 6-2.
Myers (74), Brown (44) and Hazel (37) have combined for 155 of Clearfield’s whopping 177 three-pointers, an average of 8.2 per game.
Glunt can count on solid minutes from seniors Caleb Strouse and Carter Wood, who are 6-3 and 6-2, respectively, and 6-0 junior Ryan Lezzer for an eight-player rotation.
He’s also banking on a vocal crowd to give the Bison an edge.
“We’re thankful for the opportunity to play in Bison Gym,“ he said. “We’ve had unbelievable support all season from the student section and the community.”
St. Marys (14-8) will host Punxsutawney (14-8) in the other semifinal Tuesday night.
The district title game most likely will be played later this week at Clarion University.
Bison Scoreboard:
Date Opponent Score Record
12/07 CURWENSVILLE 76 – 35 1 – 0
12/09 @ Central ppd. 1 – 0
12/11 HUNTINGDON 77 – 64 2 – 0
12/15 BELLEFONTE 44 – 30 3 – 0
12/16 ST. MARYS 68 – 59 4 – 0
12/18 @ Tyrone 59 – 50 5 – 0
12/21 @ Punxsutawney 48 – 66 5 – 1
12/23 @ Bellefonte 56 – 39 6 – 1
12/29&30 Purchase Line Christmas Tourney
12/29 vs. Harmony 60 – 30 7 – 1
12/30 vs. Purchase Line 63 – 24 8 – 1
01/05 BROOKVILLE 64 – 48 9 – 1
01/06 BALD EAGLE AREA 89 – 56 10 – 1
01/08 @ Penns Valley 58 – 49 11 – 1
01/12 PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA ppd. 11 – 1
01/14 PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA 80 – 42 12 – 1
01/15 CENTRAL 67 – 50 13 – 1
01/18 DUBOIS 71 – 42 14 – 1
01/20 @ Huntingdon 92 – 48 15 – 1
01/26 TYRONE 57 – 47 16 – 1
01/29 @ Bald Eage Area 97 – 57 17 – 1
02/01 @ Central 57 – 64 17 – 2
02/03 PENNS VALLEY 44 – 37 18 – 2
02/05 @ Philipsburg-Osceola 75 – 27 19 – 2
02/08 @ Curwensville 72 – 39 20 – 2
02/16 District 9 Semifinals
02/16 vs. BRADFORD