CURWENSVILLE — One team was hosting its next-to-last event of the season, while another was wrapping up the regular season inside Patton Hall on Tuesday night. The host squad, the Curwensville Golden Tide, knew they only had two games remaining in their overall season, while the visiting Clearfield Bison were closing out their regular season campaign before turning their focus to playoffs. These two squads started the year facing one another, with Clearfield winning that season-opening contest.
It was more of the same as Clearfield, trying to erase the tough loss from the night before against Bellefonte, finished out the campaign with a 71-49 victory over the Tide, almost matching their season-opening output against the same squad.
The first quarter told the story for the night, as Clearfield quickly got out in front with their speed and ball movement. Fresh off getting past the 1000-point mark in his career, Cole Miller got in a groove quickly, and would not let off the throttle. Miller put up nine points in the opening eight minutes, paving the way to a 19-6 advantage after one quarter.
One matchup that many were anticipating was the battle between Miller and Curwensville’s 1000-point man, Ty Terry. They got exactly that, as after being shut out during the first quarter, Terry spent the remainder of the game practically living behind the three-point line. The Tide senior drained seven three-pointers on the night, finishing with a game-high 23 points. Miller got his points as well, finishing with 16, but he was not the leading scorer for the Bison.
The second quarter once again belonged to Clearfield, but it was Ryan Gearhart doing the majority of the scoring draining 11 of the 23 Bison points in the frame. Gearhart would have a captivating night, finishing with a team-high 21 points, plus five steals and four assists.
Clearfield’s dominant defense limited the Tide to only 17 points through the first half, while the offense put up 42 points and never looked back.
To Curwensville’s credit, they battled tough in the second half, despite being down. One thing Tide head coach Matt Wassil has wanted over the final couple games was to keep battling, and improving. After three quarters, the 56-27 advantage was enough for both squads to put in their reserves to get some playing experience in the remainder of the game.
That allowed Curwensville to have a strong finish to the game, putting up 22 points in the final quarter, as Ayden Sutika managed to get into double figures as he put up all 10 of his points in the final quarter.
Clearfield (13-9) completed its regular season and now awaits their matchup for the District 9 playoffs. Meanwhile, Curwensville (5-16) will close out its season Wednesday night inside Patton Hall when they play host to Juniata Valley. The Hornets took the first matchup between the two schools on January 7, 56-43. Tip-off for junior varsity is at 6 p.m. with varsity to follow.
SCORE BY QUARTER
Clearfield 19 23 14 16 – 71
Curwensville 6 11 10 22 – 49
Clearfield – 71
Ryan Gearhart 10 1-1 21, Cole Miller 5 4-6 16, Isakk Way 3 0-0 7, Nick Collins 4 0-0 8, Luke Pallo 2 2-4 6, Nate Natoli 0 1-2 1, Caleb Wilt 1 0-0 3, Kai Lynch 1 0-0 3, Eric Fletcher 0 0-0 0, Justin Fletcher 1 1-4 3, Kam Kushner 1 0-0 3. TOTALS 28 9-17 71.
Curwensville – 49
Andrew Wassil 0 2-2 2, Ty Terry 8 0-0 23, Tyler Lee 0 0-0 0, Danny McGarry 1 1-2 3, Grant Swanson 0 0-0 0, Davis Fleming 3 0-0 7, Chandler English 0 0-0 0, Braden Holland 0 0-0 0, Parker Wood 1 2-2 4, Ayden Sutika 5 0-2 10. TOALS 18 5-8 49.