SPRING MILLS – Clearfield (8-3) was in a back-and-forth game with the Rams of Penns Valley (3-7) on Thursday night, but unfortunately, they came out on the losing end in a 53-48 final.
The story of the game was the performance by Penns Valley senior point-forward Zach Braucht who scored the final 19 points for the Rams to will them to the overtime victory. Braucht led all scorers in the game with 36 points with five three balls and a perfect six-for-six from the charity stripe.
“He had a fantastic game,” said Clearfield Bison Head Coach Nate Glunt on Braucht’s performance. “We will get back to work tomorrow to work at fixing our mistakes and building upon the things we do well.”
Clearfield’s sharpshooting junior guard Cole Miller had the hot hand for the Bison in this one as he sunk nine trey balls to lead the Bison offense with 27 points.
“Cole Miller did a fantastic job of finding open areas and hitting tough shots,” said Glunt about Miller’s shooting display Thursday evening.
This game was back-and-forth throughout as Penns Valley led after the first quarter by a narrow 10-8 advantage. Miller, Isakk Way, and Luke Pallo combined to hit four three pointers in the second quarter to help the Bison take a two-point lead into the locker room at 24-22. At that point, Braucht had accounted for 14 of the 22 Rams’ points for Penns Valley.
Clearfield expanded their advantage by two points in the third as Miller scored all 12 for the team in the period on four more from beyond-the-arc. Heading into the fourth, Clearfield clung to a narrow 36-32 lead.
Solid defense from the Rams in the fourth-quarter paired with three treys from Braucht helped Penns Valley tie the game at 43 all going into the overtime. In the fourth quarter and overtime, the Bison combined to score just 12 points, while Penns Valley netted 21 tallies between the fourth and overtime to come out with a narrow five point win on their home floor.
Four more Rams found the scoring column as Maclain Welshans scored eight, Kyle Niewinski netted six, Jackson Romig scored a two-point bucket, and Aidan Culver buried a free-throw.
Clearfield featured another double-figure scorer in addition to Miller as Way netted 10. Pallo followed Way by narrowly missing double-digits in points with nine tallies for the game. Rounding out the scoring for Clearfield was Ryan Gearhart who made two of his three shots from the free-throw line in this one.
The Bison fall to 4-2 in the Mountain League after the loss, but will look to get back in the win column next Tuesday, January 18 as they hit the road to square off against Philipsburg-Osceola. Back on December 15, 2021, Clearfield picked up a 46-40 victory over the Mounties in their first showdown of the season.
The junior-varsity game Tuesday will tip-off at 6:00 p.m. with the varsity game set to begin at 7:30 p.m.
PENNS VALLEY – 53
Zach Braucht 8 6-6 36, Jackson Romig, 1 0-0 2 Kyle Niewinski 3 0-0 6, Colin Niewinski 0 0-0 0, Aidan Culver, 0 1-2 1, Logan Crater 0 0-0 0, Maclain Welshans 2 1-2 8, TOTALS 14 8-10 53.
CLEARFIELD – 48
Ryan Gearhart 0 2-3 2 Cole Miller 0 0-0 27, Isakk Way 3 1-2 10, Luke Pallo 3 0-1 9, Nick Collins 0 0-0 0, Caleb Wilt 0 0-0 0, TOTALS 6 3-6 48.
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
PENNS VALLEY 10 12 10 11 10 53
CLEARFIELD 8 16 12 7 5 48
THREE-POINTERS: PENNS VALLEY – 6 Braucht 5, Welshans 1. CLEARFIELD – 11 Miller 9, Way 1, Pallo 1.
