HYDE – The Clearfield Bison boys basketball squad opened up its Mountain League schedule Wednesday night, at home, against Central.
The defending champions were knocked off by the Scarlet Dragons 56-45 who are now 2-1 on the year, while the Bison fell to 1-1.
Bison coach Nate Glunt put it bluntly afterwards, saying, “They came ready to play tonight and we didn’t and that’s on me. That’s my fault for not having us ready.”
Clearfield took a 3-2 lead early in the first eight minutes on a free throw by sophomore Cade Walker, but Central went out in front, 5-3, on a three point play by its big man, 6’ 4” Joey Smith, with 5:16 remaining in the first quarter.
The Scarlet Dragons would maintain that edge and lead after one quarter 13-12 thanks in part to seven points by Smith.
Jon Gates put the Bison back in the lead, 15-13, with a three-pointer, one of three on the night for Gates, to start the scoring in the second frame, but a 10-0 Central run had the Dragons up by eight, 23-15, with 4:15 to go before halftime.
Preston Karstetter had eight points to fuel Central in the second quarter.
With a 31-26 margin to start the second half the Scarlet Dragons stepped up on defense in the third quarter, holding the Bison to just six points, all by Walker.
In the meantime, Central added 16 tallies to its side of the scoreboard in the third to take a commanding 47-32 lead into the final eight minutes.
Clearfield did win the fourth quarter, 13-9, and ended up going 7 of 10 from the foul line on the night.
Walker lead Clearfield with 18 points while Gates added nine, all on three-pointers.
Smith was high scorer for Central with 21 while Karstetter added 16, that also included three three-pointers.
Glunt talked about what went wrong and what needs to be corrected before the next contest, saying, “We took a lot of bad shots tonight and just didn’t execute like we needed to. So we will be working on our zone offense and definitely our passing before Friday.”
Central also won the junior varsity game, defeating the Bison 49-34.
The Bison travel to Huntingdon on Friday for another Mountain League game that can heard on WOKW-FM, 102.9, with the pre-game show starting at approximately 7:15 pm.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
CENTRAL 13 18 16 9 56
CLEARFIELD 12 14 6 13 45
THREE-POINTERS: CENTRAL – 3 (Karstetter 3); CLEARFIELD – 6 (Gates 3, Wilson, Chew, Lopez)
CENTRAL – 56
Joey Smith 9 3-5 21, Preston Karstetter 6 1-1 16, Luke Williams 1 0-0 2, Noah Muthler 2 1-2 5, Thad Albright 1 3-4 5, Braden Kit 0 0-0 0, Leyton Kling 0 0-0 0, Hunter Klotz 3 1-1 7
TOTALS – 22 9-13 56
CLEARFIELD – 45
Cade Walker 6 6-8 18, Jon Gates 3 0-0 9, Reese Wilson 2 0-0 5, Ryan Chew 2 0-0 5, Wyatt
Porter 0 1-2 1, Jake Lezzer 2 0-0 4, Josh Geppert 0 0-0 0, Karson Rumsky 0 0-0 0, Barrett Kline 0 0-0 0,
Andrew Lopez 1 0-0 3, Jake Billotte 0 0-0 0
TOTALS – 16 7-10 45
OFFICIALS: Al Price, Bill Wolfe, Barry Abbott
Bison Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/08 | CURWENSVILLE | 54 – 52 | 1 – 0 |
| 12/13 | CENTRAL | 45 – 56 | 1 – 1 |
| 12/15 | @ Huntingdon | ||
| 12/20 | @ Bellefonte | ||
| 12/29 | @ Purchase Line Christmas Tourney | ||
| 12/30 | @ Purchase Line Christmas Tourney | ||
| 01/05 | TYRONE | ||
| 01/08 | @ Punxsutawney | ||
| 01/10 | @ Bald Eagle Area | ||
| 01/12 | PENNS VALLEY | ||
| 01/15 | @ Clarion-Limestone | ||
| 01/16 | @ Philipsburg-Osceola | ||
| 01/19 | @ Central | ||
| 01/22 | DUBOIS | ||
| 01/24 | HUNTINGDON | ||
| 01/26 | BELLEFONTE | ||
| 01/30 | @ Tyrone | ||
| 02/01 | BROOKVILLE | ||
| 02/02 | BALD EAGLE AREA | ||
| 02/07 | @ Penns Valley | ||
| 02/09 | PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA | ||
| 02/12 | @ Curwensville |