Clearfield Bison Down Bellefonte 50-41

BELLEFONTE – The Clearfield boys basketball team showed Wednesday night why free throws are actually vital in each and every game.

Making nine of 11 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter enabled the Bison to knock off Mountain League foe Bellefonte 50-41 on the Red Raider home court.

In all, Clearfield connected on 12 of 16 throughout the contest.

The first eight minutes, a low scoring quarter, went to the Bison 9-5 thanks to two three-point field goals, one each from senior Wyatt Porter and freshman Karson Rumsky.

Clearfield began the second quarter hitting two treys thanks to Reese Wilson and Ryan Chew, both seniors, that pushed the Bison margin to 10, 15-5, with 6:35 to play before halftime.

With 3:10 to go before the break, senior Jon Gates hit a three pointer that gave Clearfield its biggest lead of the game at 20-9.

Bellefonte did come to within four tallies, 22-18, on a three by Jaymz McClelland, but baskets by Wilson and Cade Walker closed out the first 16 minutes with Clearfield up by eight, 26-18.

Wilson, having his best game of the season so far, picked up seven of his game high 15 points in the second frame.

Clearfield would hold onto the lead in the third quarter and lead by 10 points twice, 30-20 and 36-26, before the Raiders ended the quarter on a free throw to drop the Bison lead to nine at the end of the third, 36-27.

Wilson had another big quarter in the third, scoring six more points.

Bellefonte had other ideas when the final quarter got underway as the Red Raiders went on a 9-0 run to tie the game at 36-36 with 4:28 left.

Porter gave Clearfield the lead back, 39-36, which it would maintain the rest of the game, with his second trey of the battle at the 3:40 mark.

The closest Bellefonte would come was 39-37 before Clearfield put on a pretty good display of free throw shooting down the stretch, the final three minutes of action, going eight for eight.

Wilson and Ryan Lezzer each went two for two from the line, while Chew went four of four that closed the door on Bellefonte.

The senior Chew was six of seven from the line during the game that helped Clearfield even its season record
at 2-2.

Helping Wilson with his 15 points for the Bison was Chew with 13 points.

Bellefonte, still winless at 0-4, also had a pretty good night at the line, going 10 of 14 with its high point man being Caleb Rockey who dumped in nine points.

Both squads combined for 11 buckets from three point land, with Clearfield having six.

In the junior varsity game it was Bellefonte defeating the Bison 44-31. Karson Rumsky led Clearfield with 10 points.

Clearfield is now off until after Christmas when they once again compete in the Purchase Line Christmas Tournament next Thursday and Friday.

CLEARFIELD – 50
Cade Walker 2 2-5 6, Jon Gates 2 0-0 5, Reese Wilson 6 2-2 15, Ryan Chew 3 6-7 13, Wyatt Porter
2 0-0 6, Jake Lezzer 0 2-2 2, Keegan Hess 0 0-0 0, Karson Rumsky 1 0-0 3
TOTALS – 16 12-16 50

BELLEFONTE – 41
Jaymz McClelland 1 0-0 3, Cade Fortney 2 1-2 7, Ben McCartney 2 3-3 8, Noah Nadolsky 3 1-2 7, Caleb Rockey 2 5-7 9, Nate Tice 2 0-0 5, Joey Maggs 0 0-0 0, Bailey Decker 1 0-0 2
TOTALS – 13 10-14 41

SCORE BY QUARTERS:
CLEARFIELD 9 17 10 14 50
BELLEFONTE 5 13 9 14 41
THREE-POINTERS: CLEARFIELD – 6; Porter 2, Gates, Wilson, Chew, Rumsky BELLEFONTE – 5; Fortney 2, McClelland, McCartney, Tice

OFFICIALS: Denny Long, Joe Hanna, Scott Johnson

Bison Scoreboard: