HYDE — Makes at the foul line and behind the arc were the difference for the Clearfield Area High School boys basketball team in a hard-fought 51-42 win over Philipsburg-Osceola on Senior Night with a large crowd on hand in Bison Gym Friday.
The Mountain League rivals had identical numbers of field goals (18) and rebounds (32) and the Mounties had only one more turnover (15).
The Mounties really struggled at the charity stripe, though, missing 14 of their first 15 free throws and finishing just 4-for-21, while the Bison drained 11 of 18 attempts.
Clearfield also had a 4-2 edge in three-pointers, thanks to Ryan Chew nailing three of
his four long-range tries on his way to a 16-point performance.
“Chewy played so well,” coach Nate Glunt praised one of the six Bison recognized before the tip-off. “Boxing out. Defense, always covering their best guard. And scoring on offense. He hit a big three when they had a little momentum (in the fourth quarter).
“He’s a competitor and battles. He gives you everything he has.”
That included six rebounds, four steals and two assists before fouling out with 3:57 remaining and the Bison ahead 45-35.
The Bison already were down one starter with high-scoring guard Reese Wilson,
another senior, exiting early in the second quarter because of an injury.
“It’s so sad he tweaked an ankle on Senior Night, cause he’s been unbelievable for us,” Glunt said. “So the young guys stepped up when we lost those two, and we were able to maintain the lead.”
P-O (4-17, 1-12) did narrow what had been the intense game’s biggest spread, 43-30, to six points at the 1:45 mark on one of Carson Jones’ four hard-driving layups after the Bison turned the ball over for the fourth time in the 9-0 run.
“We learned how to play with a lead against a man where we’re able to run a motion offense and get a good shot,” Glunt said. “Now we have to learn to do it against a zone,
being able to know when to attack, when to pull out, when to shoot, when not to shoot.
“That’s the first time we’ve seen a 1-3-1 extended. You still want to be in an attack mode, but you don‘t want a quick three and you don‘t want to penetrate off one pass. Throw a couple passes and then look to shoot. We‘re still learning, but we did a good job of that in the fourth quarter. We just missed a couple layups.”
At 45-39, the Mounties were as close as they had been since trailing 29-22 at halftime. And as close as they would get.
Good ball movement against the P-O pressure led to Taye Lynch finding Jon Gates open inside for a key basket, and Keagan Hess sealed Clearfield’s 12th win in 20
games with pairs of free throws in the final 25 seconds.
“We were able to keep defending, keep in good position, and that’s what won us the game,” Glunt said. “I had a lot of people tell me in the off-season, ‘I don’t know coach Glunt, I don’t know. I knew that I had a great group of kids. They are just fantastic individuals. They worked so hard at it and to solidify a winning season tonight, I’m just so happy for the whole team, but especially the seniors.
Gates was another senior who delivered, scoring 14 points and grabbing five rebounds.
“I thought our seniors led the way,” Glunt said. “I was so proud of Jon and Chewy.”
All five underclassmen who played made their presence known, led by Cade Walker’s 11 points and Lynch’s team-high eight rebounds, three steals, two assists and two points starting in place of the ailing Walker.
Eight of Walker’s points, including an old-fashioned three-point play off a Chew feed, came after he checked in late in the first quarter through the middle of the second period that, coupled with a three-pointer from the right corner by Gates, offset a good run by the Mounties’ Marcus Wisor and Jones.
“Our younger guys stepped up,” Glunt said. “Cade was sick (Wednesday), came in and did a great job. Taye provided great energy throughout the game. It was important for him to be able to rebound against their length, which he did a great job. Keagan made four big foul shots. Karson Rumsky’s been playing well all year, getting better. Jake Lezzer comes in and gives us great minutes.”
The lone critique he had was the Bison being outrebounded on too many Mountie misses at the foul line.
“We were fortunate they missed some free throws, but we were unfortunate in how we boxed out. Our free throw defense was not good.
“But that’s a credit to Philipsburg. Matt (Curtis) does a good job with their kids, battling and being physical. They did that when we played them in the off-season. And we knew it was coming. We were able to get some rebounds at other times, but we’ve gotta rebound better at the foul line.”
Starter Wyatt Porter and reserves Jake Billotte and Josh Geppert were the other seniors honored in the pre-game ceremony.
“I would say this about our seniors, they listened and they learned,” Glunt said. “They watched how to lead, and they came out and started back in the spring where they led by example, and they led in the summer, and they led in the fall. They come to practice with energy. They have a great attitude. It’s so fun to be around. They earned a winning season, and that‘s a credit to them and how hard they worked.”
Wisor and Jones were high scorers for the Mounties with 16 and 13 points, respectively.
The Bison, now 8-5 in the league, will make the short trip to Curwensville for a non-league game Monday before going on a long trip to Spring Mills Thursday for an ML makeup game against Penns Valley.
Rumsky and Lezzer scored 16 points apiece and Andrew Lopez added 10 for the Clearfield junior varsity, but Philipsburg-Osceola held on for a 48-45 win.
PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA — 42
Carson Jones 6 1-9 13, Dane Soltys 4 0-2 8, Tyler Doyle 0 2-4 2, Derek Dixion 0 0-1 0, Marcus Wisor 7 1-5 16, Ryan Whitehead 0 0-0 0, Kaleb Richardson 0 0-0 0, Bubba Slogosky 1 0-0 3, Keegan Soltis 0 0-0 0, Ryan Kephart 0 0-0 0, Isiah Scalzo 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 18 4-21 42.
CLEARFIELD — 51
Ryan Chew 6 1-2 16, Reese Wilson 2 0-0 4, Jon Gates 5 3-3 14, Wyatt Porter 0 0-3 0, Taye Lynch 1 0-2 2, Cade Walker 4 3-4 11, Keegan Hess 0 4-4 4, Karson Rumsky 0 0-0 0, Jake Lezzer 0 0-0 0, Jake Billotte 0 0-0 0, Josh Geppert 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 18 11-18 51.
Three-Point Field Goals — Philipsburg-Osceola 2 (Wisor 1, Slogosky 1); Clearfield 4 (Chew 3, Gates 1).
Score by Quarters
Philipsburg-Osceola 13 9 4 16 – 42
Clearfield 15 14 11 11 – 51
Officials — Clark Addleman, John McDougal and Dan Sullivan.
Bison Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/08 | CURWENSVILLE | 54 – 52 | 1 – 0 |
| 12/13 | CENTRAL | 45 – 56 | 1 – 1 |
| 12/15 | @ Huntingdon | 62 – 85 | 1 – 2 |
| 12/20 | @ Bellefonte | 50 – 41 | 2 – 2 |
| 12/28 | @ Purchase Line Christmas Tourney | ||
| 12/28 | vs. Harmony | 73-31 | 3 – 2 |
| 12/29 | @ Purchase Line Christmas Tourney | ||
| 12/29 | vs. Purchase Line | 45 – 56 | 3 – 3 |
| 01/05 | TYRONE | 56 – 63 | 3 – 4 |
| 01/08 | @ Punxsutawney | 54 – 68 | 3 – 5 |
| 01/10 | @ Bald Eagle Area | 56 – 45 | 4 – 5 |
| 01/12 | PENNS VALLEY | 40 – 28 | 5 – 5 |
| 01/15 | @ Clarion-Limestone | 57 – 41 | 6 – 5 |
| 01/16 | @ Philipsburg-Osceola | 49 – 42 | 7 – 5 |
| 01/19 | @ Central | 46 – 50 | 7 – 6 |
| 01/22 | DUBOIS | 69 – 60 ot | 8 – 6 |
| 01/24 | HUNTINGDON | 70 – 53 | 9 – 6 |
| 01/26 | BELLEFONTE | 42 – 35 ot | 10 – 6 |
| 01/30 | @ Tyrone | 43 – 75 | 10 – 7 |
| 02/01 | BROOKVILLE | 38 – 40 | 10 – 8 |
| 02/02 | BALD EAGLE AREA | 64 – 46 | 11 – 8 |
| 02/07 | @ Penns Valley | ppd. | 11 – 8 |
| 02/09 | PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA | 51 – 42 | 12 – 8 |
| 02/12 | @ Curwensville | ||
| 02/15 | @ Penns Valley |