The Bisons trailed by 10 points going into the final quarter and got the Wildcat lead down to only four, 53-49, late in the period on a three pointer by Jack Mellgard.
It was, however, the first half that put Clearfield on comeback alert as they were outscored 23-13 in the first sixteen minutes. The Wildcats outscored the Bisons in the second period 15-6, which really was what did Clearfield in, forcing the Bisons to battle back from a double digit margin.
Clearfield coach Forrest Campman spoke about the first half of play by both teams, “I thought in general that both teams played a very poor first half. It was definitely not good basketball. We had poor shot selection there in the first half with guys taking shots that they shouldn’t attempt.”
The third quarter was played even as both the Wildcats and Bisons scored 11 points keeping the lead for Central Mountain at 10 going into the final eight minutes.
Central Mountain actually had their biggest lead of the night in the third quarter when they went on top of the Bisons 30-15 on a free throw by Cole Renninger who scored 12 points on the evening.
The Bisons would not go away though as Robbie Myers scored nine of his team high 14 in the fourth quarter with Mellgard hitting two big treys to make it close at the end.
Senior Andrew Redden had 13 on the night as he put 10 of his points on the board in the second half to also help keep Clearfield in the contest. Redden drained three treys.
Campman followed with, “We didn’t execute our game plan most of the night and that comes off of us having a poor practice on Thursday.”
The Clearfield coach closed with, “We need to make the others guys work harder on offense because we give up too many easy baskets at times.”
Myers and Redden were helped on the offensive end for Clearfield by Curtis Fry with nine points and Mellgard with eight.
Richie Lasalle paced the Wildcats with 21 points, scoring 11 in the final period. As mentioned earlier Renninger ended the game with 12 and Luke Wise, off of the bench, had nine for Central Mountain who improved on the year to 12-8.
Clearfield defeated Central Mountain in their first meeting on January 7 on the Wildcats’ home court 48-45 in overtime.
The junior varsity contest went to Central Mountain by a score of 41-35 over the Bisons.
Clearfield, now 4-15 on the season, will try to snap a five game losing streak when they travel to Philipsburg Saturday to play the Mounties. The Bisons beat the Mounties on January 5, 44-31, at Clearfield. The junior varsity game will start at 2 pm with the varsity to immediately follow.
CENTRAL MOUNTAIN – 55
Cameron Blazina 0 2-2 2, Cole Fenton 2 0-1 5, Justin Allen 2 0-3 4, Cole Renninger 3 5-8 12, Richie Lasalle 8 5-5 21, Luke Wise 3 2-2 9, John Fisher 0 0-0 0, Connor Garbrick 1 0-0 2, TOTALS – 19 14-21 55.
CLEARFIELD – 49
Curtis Frye 3 3-6 9, Andrew Redden 4 2-2 13, Jack Mellgard 3 0-0 8, Derek Morgan 1 2-2 4, Robbie Myers 6 2-4 14, Beau Swales 0 0-0 0, Christian Lezzer 0 1-2 1, Vaughn Metz 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 17 11-16 49.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
CENTRAL MOUNTAIN 8 15 11 21 55
CLEARFIELD 7 6 11 25 49
THREE-POINTERS: CENTRAL MOUNTAIN – 3 Fenton, Renninger, Wise CLEARFIELD – 5 Redden 3, Mellgard 2
OFFICIALS: Alan Price, Dennis Betar, Robert Rupp
