DUBOIS — The Clearfield boys basketball team knew coming in to Tuesday’s District 9 Class 4A Championship against St. Marys that it was going to be contested at a much slower pace than the norm as the Dutch like to run a very patient, slow-down offense that works for a high-percentage shot.
The Bison defense was more than up to the task as it limited St. Marys to just seven field goals on 30 tries for a 23.3 shooting percentage and the offense hit several big 3s throughout the game in a 37-19 victory for Clearfield.
“I told our team this was going to be a mental toughness game,” Clearfield head coach Nate Glunt said. “St. Marys wants to be patient, but they are still trying to score. They just are not going to take a bad shot. And they rarely turn it over. They just keep working the ball until they get the shot they want. It takes five-on-five defense to be able to go against that. Our kids were mentally tough. This wasn’t and up-and-down (the court) game, it was a toughness game.”
The teams traded buckets to open the first with Clearfield getting field goals from Evett Maines and Braison Patrick and St. Marys countering with baskets by Nico Assalone and Louie Nedzinski. Maines buried a 3 with a little over two minutes left in the first to give the Bison a 7-4 lead, which they took to the second frame.
Assalone made it 7-5 when he hit 1-of-2 free throws early in the second and the score stayed that way until a Tanner Kaskan offensive rebound and putback made it 9-5 nearly midway through the stanza.
Parker Collins and Patrick both connected on 3-pointers later in the quarter to lift the Bison to a 15-5 advantage at the half.
St. Marys did not have a field goal in the second quarter, only took two shots and turned it over an uncharacteristic five times. Clearfield also pulled down every rebound (5) in the quarter.
“Our kids did a really good job of making them take the shots we wanted them to shoot,” Glunt said. “That was the key because they are going to work the ball until they get a shot about four feet from the basket. They are just going to keep going, keep going, keep going. They also get a lot of points off their full-court press, but we were able to be strong on the ball and not turn it over in those situations and just made them play against our half court defense, which I thought they played really well.”
Maines put Clearfield on top 17-5 with a pair of free throws early in the third, but St. Marys countered with a field goal from Nedzinski, who also went 1-of-2 from the line a couple possessions later to cut the Dutch deficit to 17-8 with a little over five minutes left in the quarter.
That’s when Collins took over the game.
The Bison senior drilled a 3-pointer at 4:53 to make it 20-8 then, after an Elijah Glunt steal, corralled an offensive rebound and scored on a putback at 4:17. Moments later Collins ripped down a board on the other end of the floor and then connected on another trey with 2:44 to go in the third to put the Bison in command 25-8.
“Parker hit those two big 3s that extended the lead out to 17, and at that point the way (St. Marys) was playing offense, it was almost insurmountable.”
Patrick hit 1-of-2 from the line to make it 26-8 heading to the fourth. The Dutch stopped the 9-0 run with a bucket, but Patrick countered with back-to-back 3-point plays as Clearfield took its biggest lead of the night, 32-10, with 5:07 left in the game.
Patrick led all scorers with 13 points. Collins added 11 and Maines netted seven. Maines and Kaskan each grabbed five boards for the Bison. St. Marys got eight points and a game-high eight rebounds from Nedzinski.
St. Marys outscored the Bison 9-5 over the final 4:27 of play, but it was far too little, far too late as Clearfield won its second straight D-9 title over the Dutch and earned the 11th district championship in the past 12 years under Glunt. Clearfield also improved to 21-3, reaching 21 wins in a season for the first time since the 2016-17 campaign when the Bison finished with a 23-2 mark.
“I’m very fortunate to have excellent players,” Glunt said. “We have the school’s all-time leading scorer (Patrick) and another 1,000-point scorer (Maines) and another senior (Collins) and they are all 3-year starters, and they’ve been through a lot. And our youngers kids, our juniors and sophomores, have played a lot of basketball coming up through the program. I’m not going to say this was unexpected because we knew we had a good team. But they’ve come together. You don’t have success unless you get contributions from so many different people. And that is what has happened this year.
“When one guy isn’t shooting well, somebody else steps up. Elijah and Parker may not be our leading scorers, but Elijah leads our team in a stat that measures every offensive and defensive stat together as one, and Parker leads us in four different categories. And Tanner and Noah (Rumfola) have gotten so much better and given us big minutes. And our young kids have been great scout team guys in practice. It’s just a total team effort.”
The Bison get a familiar foe in Obama Academy next. The teams play in the District 8-9 subregional Friday at 7:30 p.m. at PennWest Clarion’s Waldo S. Tippin Gymnasium in a PIAA qualifier. Clearfield beat Obama 68-60 last season in the same round.
“We have two days to prepare,” Glunt said. “Obama has a lot of their guys back and they were really good last year. They also have a guard that transferred from another school that is averaging 20 points per game. So it’s a big challenge, but we are looking forward to it.”
St. Marys—19
Tysen Beimel 1 0-0 0 2, Drew Schutz 0 0-0 0, Louis Nedzinski 3 2-3 8, Troy Herzing 0 0-0 0, Nico Assalone 2 2-4 6, CJ Hnath 1 0-0 3, Darren Shaw 0 0-0 0, Bode Regulski 0 0-0 0, Braedan Chicola 0 0-0 0, Chase Herzing 0 0-0 0, Kai Caskey 0 0-0 0, Garret Riecofsky 0 0-0 0, Jacob Gaster 0 0-0 0. Totals 7 4-7 19.
Clearfield—37
Parker Collins 4 0-0 11, Evett Maines 3 2-2 9, Elijah Glunt 0 0-0 0, Braison Patrick 4 4-6 13, Tanner Kaskan 1 0-2 2, JT Strishock 1 0-0 2, Noah Rumfola 0 0-0 0, Easton Maines 0 0-0 0, Ethan Coudriet 0 0-0 0, Demetri Vitullo 0 0-0 0, Dominic Natoli 0 0-0 0, Nolan Livergood 0 0-0 0, Avery Schenck 0 0-0 0, Zach Porter 0 0-0 0, Caleb Gibson 0 0-0 0, Nico Natoli 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 6-10 37.
Three-pointers: Clearfield 5 (Collins 3, Ev. Maines, Patrick).
Score by Quarters
St. Marys 4 1 3 11—19
Clearfield 7 8 11 11—37
Clearfield Bison Basketball Scoreboard
| DATE AND OPPONENT | SCORE | RECORD |
| 12/2 HOLLIDAYSBURG | PPD. | 0-0 |
| 12/4 HOLLIDAYSBURG | 71-59 | 1-0 |
| 12/8 at Huntingdon | 69-45 | 2-0 |
| 12/11 PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA | 76-30 | 3-0 |
| 12/15 at Penns Valley | 61-45 | 4-0 |
| 12/17 at Somerset (6:15 p.m.) | 71-39 | 5-0 |
| 12/19 CHESTNUT RIDGE | PPD. | 5-0 |
| 12/22 BELLWOOD-ANTIS | 64-60 | 6-0 |
| 12/29 at Curwensville (6 p.m.) | 56-31 | 7-0 |
| 12/30 CHESTNUT RIDGE | 87-40 | 8-0 |
| 1/5 at Bald Eagle Area | 69-43 | 9-0 |
| 1/8 at West Branch | 81-42 | 10-0 |
| 1/12 at Central | 56-44 | 11-0 |
| 1/14 at Bellefonte | 73-52 | 12-0 |
| 1/16 at Forest Hills | 44-72 | 12-1 |
| 1/21 BISHOP GUILFOYLE | PPD. | 12-1 |
| 1/22 BISHOP GUILFOYLE | 53-48 | 13-1 |
| 1/23 TYRONE | 82-65 | 14-1 |
| 1/26 at Brookville (7:15 p.m.) | PPD. | 14-1 |
| 1/28 at Hollidaysburg | 53-55 | 14-2 |
| 1/30 CENTRAL CAMBRIA | 78-38 | 15-2 |
| 1/31 at Brookville | 62-56 | 16-2 |
| 2/4 HUNTINGDON | 63-54 | 17-2 |
| 2/5 at Philipsburg-Osceola | 65-36 | 18-2 |
| 2/9 PENNS VALLEY | 75-61 | 19-2 |
| 2/10 PUNXSUTAWNEY (7:15 p.m.) | 72-51 | 20-2 |
| 2/12 FOREST HILLS (6 p.m.) Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference semi-final |
62-69 | 20-3 |
| 2/24 vs. St. Marys (7:30 p.m. in Dubois District IX Class 4A Championship |
37-19 | 21-3 |
| 2/27 vs. Obama Academy (7:30 p.m. at PennWest Clarion in District VII/IX Class 4A Subregional |
