Dragons Come on in Second Half to Drop Clearfield in OT

MARTINSBURG — After reaching win number 100 just three nights prior, the Clearfield Bison were ready to start the next run of the season by attempting to get head coach Nate Glunt started on potentially another 100 wins.  To do so, they had to make a long trip to Martinsburg as they went against the hosting Central Dragons.

For two quarters, Clearfield showed why they were among the best teams in the Mountain League, but Central was not going away, and pushed Clearfield to the point where 32 minutes wasn’t enough to decide the game.  But, the Bison began to falter late, and Central took advantage as the Dragons breathed fire to take home the 51-43 overtime thriller.

Clearfield came out of the tip hot, and took the opening quarter, 14-11, thanks to some strong play from Andrew Lopez and Cade Walker.  More of the same came in the second quarter as Clearfield spread the ball out a bit more as Karson Rumsky and Cole Miller came in big with key points to push Clearfield to a six-point lead heading into the break.

But, those 10 minutes in the locker room allowed the Dragons to regroup, and when they emerged to swap ends of the court, they were a completely different team.

The Dragons found their niche by finding the deep ball as they drained three baskets from beyond the arc in the third quarter, going from being down six to only trailing by two.  They also were huge on defense as Walker, and his supporting cast, found it difficult to penetrate to get baskets.

Walker finished with seven boards, while adding in 15 points on the night, but in the second half it was the Dragons’ Jacob Eberlin that was hitting the net as he scored nine of his 15 points after the break.

Central began making it challenging for Clearfield in the final quarter, and the Bison had no answer.  In all, Clearfield was held to just four points.  At the same time, the Dragons, much like the mythical creature itself, began breathing fire into the sidelines and into the crowd as they knotted the game at 41, meaning for the first time this season, extra time would decide the winner.

Unfortunately for Clearfield, much like the outside temperatures, they were cold as could be in the extra stanza.  Only Walker managed to get a basket in the extra time, while the Dragons dropped 10 points in the extra frame to hand the Bison the devastating loss.

Now standing at 6-4, Clearfield will finish the first half of their season by starting a stretch of four consecutive home games on Wednesday night with a contest against the Bellefonte Red Raiders.  The junior varsity contest will open things at 6 p.m. with the varsity to follow.

SCORE BY QUARTER

Clearfield   14  13   10   4   2  –  43
Central   11   10   14   6   10  –  51

Clearfield – 43

Walker 6 3-6 15, Rumsky 1 2-4 5, Lopez 4 0-0 10, Pallo 0 0-0 0, Winters 1 0-0 2, Peacock 2 1-3 5, Miller 2 0-1 6, Hudson 0 0-0 0, Ryan 0 0-0 0, Purkett 0 0-0 0, Gearhart 0 0-0 0, Billotte 0 0-0 0, Thompson 0 0-0 0, O’Dell 0 0-0 0.  TOTALS 16 6-14 43.

Central – 51

Kitt 3 2-4 9, Boyles 2 2-4 6, Klote 2 2-4 6, Kling 2 3-6 8, Eberlin 6 1-3 15, Liebal 0 0-0 0, Ferry 0 0-0 0, Hoenstine 1 0-0 3, Lingenfelter 0 0-0 0, Rolle 1 0-0 3, Bean 0 0-0 0, Gregg 0 0-0 0, Brumbaugh 0 0-0 0, Biesinger 0 0-0 0, Lowery 0 0-0 0.  TOTALS 17 10-21 51.

Bison Scoreboard: