CURWENSVILLE – The Clearfield Bison boys basketball team got off on the right foot Friday night in Curwensville, defeating the Golden Tide 81-38 in the first game of the season for both squads.
The mercy rule came into effect mid-way through the third quarter in a game that was ugly in the first half as a total of 28 fouls were called.
Not only did all the first half fouls make for sloppy play in the first 16 minutes, but also a multitude of turnovers committed by both teams made for an uninspiring half for either squad.
Nonetheless Clearfield jumped out to a 23-15 first quarter lead thanks to 11 points from senior Will Myers and seven from Evan Brown, another senior for the Bison.
Sophomore Dakota Bloom kept Curwensville somewhat close in the first quarter, coming off of the bench hitting two three-pointers.
The Bison started to stretch the lead in the second quarter by outscoring the Tide 21-8 to take a commanding 44-23 halftime edge.
Clearfield coach Nate Glunt, in his third year, certainly did his job at the half getting his message across as the Bison put up 32 third quarter points while limiting the Golden Tide to just eight.
Senior Tommy Hazel of Clearfield paved the way in the third with a monster eight minutes, scoring 14 points as the Bison led after three, 76-31.
Curwensville coach Matt Wassil said afterwards, “I think anytime we can start the year with a game against Clearfield is a help actually because they make us compete the entire game. And that’s a good thing because they showed us where we need to improve.”
Wassil then talked about the third quarter, saying, “Offensive rebounds by Clearfield in the third quarter really killed us and that’s something we need to correct. But we don’t make any excuses. We will work through is and just keep plugging away.”
Clearfield also won the junior varsity game under the mercy rule, 52-12.
Hazel, had one three-pointer on the night, in the second quarter, giving him exactly 100 in his career.
Myers paced all scorers with 27, followed closely by Hazel with 26 for Clearfield. Senior Evan Brown chipped in another 11 for the Bison.
Curwensville was led by Zach Marshall, a senior, with 12.
The Golden Tide return to the hardwood on Monday, traveling to play the West Branch Warriors in a Moshannon Valley League game, while Clearfield plays Central at home on Tuesday night.
Junior varsity action begins at 6 pm for both games, with the varsity action to immediately follow.
Be sure to listen to the Clearfield-Central game on WOKW-FM, 102.9, starting with the pre-game show at approximately 7:20 pm.
CLEARFIELD 23 21 32 5 81
CURWENSVILLE 15 8 8 7 38
CLEARFIELD – 81
Evan Brown 5 0-2 11, Reese Wilson 2 0-0 4, David McKenzie 0 0-1 0, Tommy Hazel 12 1-5 26, Will Myers 10 3-3 27, Jarrit Wagner 1 0-0 2, Taye Lynch 0 0-0 0, Ethan McGinnis 1 0-0 2, Ryan Lazauskas 3 0-2 6, Keegan Hess 0 0-0 0, Ryan Chew 0 0-0 0, Wyatt Porter 1 0-0 3, Jake Sorbera 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 35 4-13 81
CURWENSVILLE – 38
Devan Barrett 1 0-0 2, Noah Von Gunden 2 2-5 6, Christian Bakaysa 1 5-8 7, Nate McKenrick 0 1-2 1, Zach Marshall 3 3-4 12, Avery Francisco 1 1-4 3, Dakota Bloom 2 1-2 7, TOTALS – 10 13-25 38
OFFICIALS: Bill Zupich, Dave Gardner, Rich Gormont