HYDE — It has been a season that could only be described as unpredictable, and yet somehow after two months of non-stop gameplay, the Clearfield Bison were in a familiar spot once again. A District IX AAAA Championship game was once again in hand, something Clearfield has seen for the last seven years. But this time, the championship opportunity was coming in front of their own home crowd. For the first time, Clearfield would play host to the championship inside the Bison Gymnasium. The opposition, the Flying Dutch of St. Marys, ready to play spoiler.
The crowd in attendance got a classic battle of offensive output, and defensive aggressiveness. But, when the clock read all zeroes, for the seventh consecutive year, the Bison would hold the championship trophy, holding off the Dutch in a 48-39 thriller.
Bison Head Coach Nate Glunt was appreciative of the seventh consecutive championship, but at the same time he had an outlook on it as a season that should stand out on its own.
“I tell you what, it’s one-in-a-row with this group. We have new players every year, and especially this year with how crazy it was,” he said. “Our kids have just been fantastic. St. Marys is really good; Coach Shuey does a great job with them. We had a 14-point lead, and they just didn’t quit.
“Give St. Marys credit for keeping the game interesting, and fighting back. To win like we did, it’s special.”
The game was methodical from the outset as each team tried to figure out what the other was doing for offense and defense. Clearfield came out in their typical man-on-man look, but St. Marys stayed in a zone to try and keep Clearfield in check. Each possession was resulting in the Bison not being able to get inside into the paint, and having to rely on their outside game. But, the Bison suddenly were able to figure it out as Cole Miller got the scoring off with a three-pointer from the wing.
Clearfield’s outside game got them out to a 16-9 advantage after one quarter, and the Bison found their biggest success doing exactly what the Dutch wanted them to do. Clearfield did not get many looks inside, only on turnovers that led to fast breaks. For Glunt, that was perfectly alright.
“That’s their (St. Marys) defense. They hustle so hard, but playing that 3-2 zone, we have to shoot the ball from the corners. That’s where they are a little susceptible. We put Karson (Rumsky) at the high post, then Cole at the top of the key, so they had to decide who they wanted to cover. In the first half, they wanted to take Karson away, so Cole got a couple good shots. Our kids play so unselfish and move the ball well.
“They were all good three’s, even the ones that didn’t go in. It wasn’t forced. We wanted to get the ball inside more, but St. Marys doesn’t let you with how they play defense. They force you to take outside shots, and we made them.”
Clearfield continued that as when Miller wasn’t scoring, Rumsky was. Rumsky, the team’s 1000-point scorer put up 11 points in the first half, finishing with 19 on the night. At the same time, when Rumsky wasn’t scoring, Miller was getting dished the ball on the right corner. He would finish the game as the high-scorer with 20 points, 18 of them courtesy of a six-pack of trey’s.
Rumsky would lead the team with eight rebounds, but afterwards he was focused on his teammates rather than himself.
“It wasn’t just me making the plays. Guys like Ryan Gearhart, Luke Winters, they are just as important in our success,” Rumsky said.
However, St. Marys wasn’t going down without a fight. After being down 26-15 at the half, as Miller nailed a three-pointer right at the buzzer, the Dutch began to chip away at the lead. At one point, the Bison stretched the lead out to 16 points in the third quarter, but after a timeout, St. Marys began to get rolling on offense as a key three-pointer by Drake Caskey ignited a 9-0 run to pull the gap down to just a couple possessions. At the same time, Clearfield wasn’t able to get shots off, with the zone defense able to block passes and force turnovers to pull even closer. After three quarters, the Dutch were down just nine points, but were getting aggressive and forcing the Bison to take chances.
“They were able to do that with their defense. They have strong kids, and they forced turnovers. We had a 16-point lead, but we weren’t taking shots at the basket, and they forced turnovers, which created shots at the foul line and also offensive rebounds,” Glunt said. “They took it to us, and weren’t going to quit.”
At the same time, the physicality was getting even more intense. The officials let the teams play to their best abilities, but many in attendance also could see at moments things were getting slightly out of hand. A couple elbows or hard fouls would result, but no technical or flagrant fouls were called, much to the chagrin of many in attendance.
As the fourth quarter wore on, the battle to one-up the opposition became a game of tit-for-tat, as when St. Marys hit a big three-pointer or jump shot, Clearfield would answer right back. The gap for the Dutch hovered right around nine points for most of the quarter, and it forced the visiting squad to foul and put the Bison on the line. But, Clearfield would not yield, as their last seven points came courtesy of foul shooting.
“We did a good job of finding Karson to get some shots inside, Luke Winters made a couple big plays, and then we made just enough foul shots in the end to win it,” Glunt said afterwards.
For St. Marys, Holden Houster led in scoring with 15 points, while Caskey added in another 11. Combined, only nine players would score on the afternoon.
After a 19-5 season that has seen delays, schedule changes, postponements, and very little practice, both Rumsky and Glunt were asked to describe this year’s championship team in one word. Not surprisingly, each had a different response, but both were along the same lines.
“I would have to say, fight,” Rumsky said. “We fight hard, and we don’t quit. That’s how I see it.”
By contrast, Glunt responded, “I’d say…resilient. There’s been so much adversity throughout the year, starting way back in March 2020. They do everything the school, and coaches, ask them to do. Just a resilient group of kids.”
Clearfield now moves into the next round of the PIAA playoffs and has a Tuesday night matchup against the District 8 champion Obama Academy Eagles of Pittsburgh.
SCORE BY QUARTER
St. Marys 9 6 9 15 – 39
Clearfield 16 10 7 15 – 48
ST. MARYS – 39
Holden Houster 5 3-5 15, Vinicius Nunes 1 0-0 2, Mitchell Reiter 1 4-6 6, Hunter Hetrick 0 0-0 0, Joshua Robinson 0 0-0 0, Luke Lasko 2 0-0 5, Bryce Walker 0 0-0 0, Drake Caskey 4 0-0 11, Isaac Schlimm 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 13 7-11 39.
CLEARFIELD – 48
Matt Pallo 0 0-0 0, Nick Ryan 0 0-1 0, Luke Winters 1 3-4 6, Karson Rumsky 7 4-6 19, Cole Miller 6 2-4 20, Ryan Gearhart 1 0-0 3, Isakk Way 0 0-0 0, Nasheed Thompson 0 0-0 0, Luke Pallo 0 0-0 0, Curvey Purkett 0 0-0 0, Justin Fletcher 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 15 9-15 48.
GAME STATISTICS
St. Marys/Clearfield
Shooting: 13-42/15-44
Rebounds: 22/22
Fouls: 15/11
Turnovers: 9/13
Three-Point Shots: Houster-2, Lasko, Caskey-3/Winters, Rumsky, Miller-6, Gearhart