DUBOIS – With a not so comfortable 62-47 win against DuBois Monday night, the Clearfield Area High School boys basketball team improved to 14-1 on the 2016-17 campaign.
It wasn’t without a fight in the rough and tumble, up and down game that the Bison prevailed in.
And thanks to Clearfield senior Tommy Hazel dumping in a season high 31 points the Bison did get the victory.
Although winning by 15 points seems like somewhat of a cakewalk, it wasn’t that way until near the end of the third quarter when Clearfield ended the third on a 7-0 run to lead by 13, 48-35, going into the fourth quarter.
The only lead the Beavers had was on the opening two pointer by Kenny Garvey, but DuBois hung around trailing by anywhere from six to nine points until that 7-0 Clearfield run before the final eight minutes.
Hazel had nine first quarter points as Clearfield took a 16-11 edge into the second frame, a frame that the Bison connected on three from behind the arc that led to a 30-23 halftime margin.
The Beavers would get as close as five points, 32-27, at the 5:40 point of the third period on a basket by Nick LaBrasca. The 6” 5” senior paced the DuBois offense with 19 tallies on the evening.
But again, the story was basically the Hazel offensive explosion. Hazel, with 11 at the half, added 10 points in each of the final two periods to pick up his 31.
The 31 scored by Hazel gives him a career total of 982, just 18 shy of the magical 1,000 point career mark.
Will Myers gave Clearfield its largest lead, 60-42, on a basket with 1:40 remaining in the battle.
Myers and Evan Brown each had 10 points in support of Hazel for Clearfield.
Kyle Hopson had 12 points for the Beavers, now below .500 at 7-8 on the season.
Clearfield coach Nate Glunt spoke after the game saying, “DuBois played very hard the entire game. They didn’t show any quit in their game.”
About his squad, Glunt said, “We were able to get a lot of good shots and also able to pound the ball inside. Our offense was good in the first half, but our defense wasn’t so good. We will get back to work tomorrow (Tuesday) on our defense for sure. But we were able to get turnovers tonight which we got some points off of. So that was good.”
Clearfield also won the junior varsity game, beating the Beavers by a score of 67-38.
The Bison play at home on Wednesday when they host Bellefonte. The junior varsity tips off at 6 pm with the varsity game to immediately follow.
Clearfield defeated Bellefonte in December 56-33, on the Red Raiders’ home court.
Listen to the Bison-Bellefonte game Wednesday night on WOKW-FM, 102.9, with the pre-game show starting at approximately 7:20 pm.
CLEARFIELD – 62
Evan Brown 4 0-0 10, Reese Wilson 0 1-2 1, David McKenzie 2 0-0 5, Tommy Hazel 13 2-2 31, Will Myers 4 2-2 10, Ryan Chew 0 0-0 0, Jon Gates 2 0-0 5, Ethan McGinnis 0 0-0 0, Ryan Lazauskas 0 0-0 0, Taye Lynch 0 0-0 0, Keegan Hess 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 25 5-6 62
DUBOIS – 47
Bryce Bright 2 0-0 5, Kyle Hopson 3 4-6 12, Alex Beers 1 0-0 3, Kenny Garvey 2 2-2 6, Nick LaBrasca 8 2-3 19, Brendon Foley 0 0-0 0, Dylan McCluskey 1 0-0 2, Justin Manduley 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 17 8-11 47
THREE-POINTERS: Clfdm(7): Hazel 3, Brown 2, McKenzie, Gates. DuBois (5): Hopson 2, Bright, Beers, LaBrasca
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
CLEARFIELD 16 14 18 14 62
DUBOIS 11 12 12 12 47
OFFICIALS: Bill Overly, Bill Barton, Bob Rossi
Bison Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/09 | @ Curwensville | 81 – 38 | 1 – 0 |
| 12/13 | CENTRAL | 53 – 41 | 2 – 0 |
| 12/16 | @ Huntingdon | 68 – 51 | 3 – 0 |
| 12/19 | @ Bellefonte | 56 – 33 | 4 – 0 |
| 12/22 | TYRONE | 65 – 40 | 5 – 0 |
| 12/29&30 | Purchase Line Christmas Tourney | ||
| 12/29 | vs. Northern Cambria | 82 – 23 | 6 – 0 |
| 12/30 | vs. Purchase Line | 65 – 45 | 7 – 0 |
| 01/03 | @ Brookville | 83 – 59 | 8 – 0 |
| 01/06 | @ Bald Eagle Area | 73 – 30 | 9 – 0 |
| 01/09 | @ Central | 46 – 57 | 9 – 1 |
| 01/11 | PENNS VALLEY | ppd. | 9 – 1 |
| 01/12 | PENNS VALLEY | 51 – 34 | 10 – 1 |
| 01/13 | @ Philipsburg-Osceola | 75 – 28 | 11 – 1 |
| 01/19 | CLARION-LIMESTONE | 82 – 48 | 12 – 1 |
| 01/20 | HUNTINGDON | 67 – 54 | 13 – 1 |
| 01/23 | @ DuBois | 62 – 47 | 14 – 1 |
| 01/25 | BELLEFONTE | ||
| 01/27 | @ Tyrone | ||
| 01/30 | PUNXSUTAWNEY | ||
| 01/31 | BALD EAGLE AREA | ||
| 02/03 | @ Penns Valley | ||
| 02/06 | CURWENSVILLE | ||
| 02/08 | PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA |