Whether he was, or is, Renninger proved that he was pretty good, as the 6’1” junior guard drained a three point field goal at the buzzer to give Central Mountain a dramatic 50-49 victory.
In a game that had more lead changes than one could keep up with, it was one of those contests were each team at the end would say that they should have come out on top.
Afterwards Campman spoke about the effort of his team, “I thought we outplayed them (Central Mountain) the whole game and I really didn’t think it would come down to that (Renninger’s three-pointer). Once again we played solid defense, rebounded the ball very well, executed decently all night and handled the ball as well as we have all season.”
On the flip side Campman said, “We missed too many opportunities, especially on lay-ups and put backs that we need to make. Another thing that hurt us is when Lord (Shawn) got into foul trouble, because he was playing a solid game for us.”
The Bisons jumped out to a 7-2 advantage in the first quarter but watched their lead taken over on a Wildcat charge to trail at the first break, 13-11.
Clearfield would take a two point lead with just one minute left in the second quarter on a bucket by senior Robbie Myers and eventually go the locker room up by one, 20-19.
Both squads found more offense in the second half with Clearfield stretching it’s margin to two at the end of three periods as they outscored the Wildcats 16-15 to take a 36-34 lead into the final eight minutes.
Bison junior Trey Jordan made a field goal that would give Clearfield a five point edge, 46-41, with just 2:20 left in the final stanza.
The Wildcats then began to claw back into the contest thanks to a three point play by Tanner Blazina with only 2:02 remaining. After Blazina made his shot and the accompanying free throw Central Mountain was trailing by only two points, 46-44.
With just 32 seconds left in the hotly contested battle Clearfield sophomore Christian Lezzer hit a two pointer giving he and his teammates a three point lead at 49-46.
Down 49-47 with only 3.7 seconds left the Wildcats threw the inbound pass to Renninger near the Central Mountain bench , who with his back to the basket turned and fired a 24-footer that found nothing but the bottom of the net as the clock struck zero and earn the Wildcats the win.
Central Mountain improved to 8-4 on the season while the Bisons fell to one game under .500 at 5-6.
Renninger had 16 to pace the Wildcat offense while Clearfield had two players in double figures with Robbie Myers scoring 17 and Lezzer adding 14.
In Junior Varsity action it was Central Mountain coming up with the victory over the younger Bisons 44-24.
The Bisons travel to Wingate on Friday to play Bald Eagle Area with the JV contest beginning at 6 pm and the varsity to immediately follow.
CENTRAL MOUNTAIN – 50
Tanner Blazina 3 1-1 8, Von Walker 2 0-0 4, Cole Renninger 5 5-8 16, John Fisher 2 2-4 6, Brad Walker 3 0-0 8, Justin Allen 1 1-3 3, Michael Dicello 2 0-0 5, Tyler Everhart 0 0-0 0, Jonny Wise 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 18 9-16 50.
CLEARFIELD – 49
Christian Lezzer 6 0-0 14, Beau Swales 2 0-0 4, Curtis Frye 1 0-0 2, Shawn Lord 2 0-3 4, Robbie Myers 5 7-11 17, Trey Jordan 4 0-0 8, Seth Beardsley 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 20 7-14 49.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
CENTRAL MOUNTAIN 13 6 15 16 50
CLEARFIELD 11 9 16 13 49
THREE-POINTERS: Lezzer 2, B. Walker 2, Dicello, Blazina, Renninger
OFFICIALS: Ken Knepp, Bud Brennen, George Schneider
