BRADFORD 56, CLEARFIELD 28

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March 6, 2010 - District 9 Class AAA Boys' Championship Game

Box Score

By Rich Rhoades

CLARION – Bradford Owls head coach Dave Fuhrman admitted to a private moment after Saturday’s District 9 Class AAA championship game at Clarion University’s Waldo S. Tippin Gymnasium.

He had a dream, and it wasn’t a good one.

“I had nightmares last night about that game down here in 2005 and we scored 22 against the same team,” Fuhrman said.

He was referring to the top-seeded Owls’ shocking 49-22 loss to the fourth-seeded Bisons in the semifinals that year after beating them soundly twice during the regular season, one of the few postseason hiccups in Fuhrman’s 20-year tenure in Bradford.

But Saturday, it didn’t take long for Fuhrman’s latest team to put him more at ease. The Owls raced out to a 20-3 start and cruised to a 56-28 win over the Bisons for their eighth district title in 10 years.

Next up for the Owls, who have won 17 straight games, is WPIAL fifth seed Trinity, on Friday at a District 9 site and time to be announced.

The last time the Owls have won this many straight games is back in 1995 when they finished 27-1 after reaching the Western Region semifinals.

“We can play with (Trinity), no doubt about it,” Fuhrman said. “I wouldn’t sell these guys short. They even surprised me. I thought we’d be pretty good, but the question was could we score enough and we’ve improved a lot offensively since the beginning of the year. I knew we were going to be solid defensively. With the offensive improvement we’ve had, these kids are a great group. They’re going to battle. If someone’s going to beat them, it’s because they’re going to have to outplay them. They’re not going to be intimidated by anyone.”

Unlike that 2005 “nightmare,” the Owls followed up their 35- and 23-point wins over the Bisons during the regular season by doubling them up on the Tippin floor. Bradford limited Clearfield to 20 percent (7-of-35) shooting and outrebounded the Bisons 37-25.

The Owls shot 44.9 percent from the floor and were led by David “Pug Fuhrman’s 16 points. Ryan Mackey scored 15 points and Evan Kline scored eight points and led the Owls with 10 rebounds.

The Bisons actually scored the game’s first basket before Bradford closed the quarter on a 14-1 run. The Owls then scored the first six points of the second quarter to build to the 20-3 lead after Fuhrman’s third of four three-pointers in the game at the 6:03 mark. The Owls led 26-11 at intermission.

Bradford cruised in the second half and led by as many as 31 points in the final minutes before settling for a district title after a one-year hiatus.

Clearfield got 15 points from Chad Zurat, who made 9 of 11 free throws and led the Bisons with six rebounds.

The Bisons next play District 10 third-place finisher Erie Central in the PIAA play-in round on Tuesday at a District 10 site and time to be announced.