HYDE — The Clearfield boys basketball team beat visiting Bradford 70-41 Tuesday evening in the District 9 4A semifinals with a mix of suffocating defense and efficient perimeter shooting.

The Bison limited the Owls to just 14 shots and held the visitors to 10 points in the first half.

Bradford turned the ball over nine times in the first quarter and 13 in the half, many times due to deflections or Bison filling the passing lanes.

“I think Karson (Rumsky) had a lot of deflections,” Clearfield head coach Nate Glunt said. “He was active in his help-side defense. And Curvey (Purkett), he gives a different presence inside protecting the paint.”

Purkett had three blocked shots and altered several others.

The Owls stayed in the game early with their own brand of solid defense as Clearfield managed just a 9-4 lead after one despite all the Bradford turnovers.

“Our kids came to play,” Glunt said. “We’ve had some good practices but it’s been practices, you’re not playing games and we were kind of rusty to start the game.”

The Bison shook off the rust and got hot late in the second quarter, ending the half on a 10-0 run as they started finding their stroke from behind the arc.

Cole Miller, Karson Rumsky and Luke Winters all drilled 3-pointers in the second to help the Bison surge to a 25-10 halftime advantage.

“We played a little bit of zone hoping that would keep them out on the perimeter,” Bradford head coach Chuck Bell said. “They’re a very good man-to-man team, they do the dribble drive well and they take it very hard to the rim and then when you come to help, they find the helper. They do a very nice job of that, so we tried to limit the number of possessions and just come play hard.

“We knew we had to rebound out of that zone to give ourselves a chance, but at the end of the day, we gotta put the ball in the basket too, and that’s where we came up short.”

The late Bison barrage from behind the arc in the second quarter was a sign of things to come.

Clearfield kept up its torrid shooting in the third quarter, getting two more treys from Miller and a 3 from Matt Pallo. The Bison connected on 12 3-pointers in the game, hitting at nearly a 50% clip (12-of-25) from long-distance.

“Cole’s been so steady all season long,” Glunt said. “He’s doing a good job of getting his feet set and taking good shots. Our kids do a good job of finding the open shooter and playing really unselfish basketball.”

Bradford tried to keep up, getting its own long-distance makes from Dalton Dixon and Jake Franz, but Clearfield was able to build its lead to 47-24 by quarter’s end.

Miller and Rumsky each connected on early fourth-quarter threes and the Bison advantage climbed to 58-27 with 4:51 left in the game. The Bison duo exited the game at that point with 37 combined points — Rumsky with 19 and Miller with 18.

“They’re very good shooters,” Bell said of the Bison. “They put a lot of time in obviously in the summer and throughout the winter when maybe not everybody was able to be in the gyms. They’ve worked very hard and it showed, and their defense is very tough too. They run a switching man that you kind of have to adjust to.”

Bradford put together a strong offensive fourth quarter, draining five threes in the frame. Gavin Piscitelli nailed two, while Cam Austin, Franz and Brendan Warner all hit one. Austin paced the Owls offense with 13 points.

The Bison improved to 18-5 with the win.

Clearfield plays St. Marys in the D-9 title game at a date, site and time to be determined. The Flying Dutch were 44-42 winners over Punxsutawney Tuesday evening in double overtime.

The Owls ended the season with a record of 8-11.

“We have two fantastic seniors (Piscitelli and Alex Liners) that were great for us,” Bell said. “They led us in both communicating with the team and the way they carried themselves on the court. I just can’t thank the seniors enough, they’re fantastic.

“We’re a young team. We’re going to build off of this year. We have some new stuff put in that I think everyone’s familiar with, and we’ll try to have a good offseason and be ready for next year.”

AT HYDE

Bradford (41)

Cam Austin 6 0-0 13, Franz 2 0-0 6, Piscitelli 2 0-0 6, Dixon 2 0-0 5, A. Gleason 2 0-0 4, Warner 1 0-0 3, Wilmoth 0 2-2 2, Roulo 1 0-0 2. Totals: 16 2-2 41

Clearfield (70)

Karson Rumsky 8 0-0 19, Cole Miller 6 1-1 18, Thompson 3 1-2 8, Winters 2 2-4 7, Gearhart 3 0-0 6, M. Pallo 2 0-0 5, Way 1 0-0 3, Fletcher 1 0-0 2, Purkett 1 0-1 2. Totals: 27 4-8 70

Bradford 4 10 24 41

Clearfield 9 25 47 70

Three-point goals: Bradford 7 (Piscitelli 2, Franz 2, Austin, Warner, Dixon), Clearfield 11 (Miller 5, Rumsky 3, Winters, M. Pallo, Thompson); Total fouls: Bradford 10, Clearfield 9; fouled out: None