FOXBURG, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Jay Clover squirmed on the bench.
The A-C Valley big man put his elbows on his knees, cupped his face in his hands and watched the action intently during the third quarter. Foul trouble had landed him on that uncomfortable perch on the sideline, unable to use his powerful 6-foot-5 frame against undersized North Clarion.
When Clover, a junior forward, finally returned, he unleashed all that frustration upon the Wolves, scoring 14 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter to help the Falcons pull away from visiting North Clarion for a 76-67 win on Tuesday night.
(A-C Valley’s Alex Preston, left, and Jay Clover were named Hager Paving Incorporated Players of the Game after combining for 49 points in the Falcons’ win over North Clarion)
“I just had to watch that I didn’t get another one,” Clover said, smiling. He didn’t. “I tried to be safe and careful.”
There was nothing safe nor careful about his play in the fourth.
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He was a wrecking ball, aggressive to the hoop for A-C Valley (3-2) on offense and big on the boards on defense. He helped spur a quick 8-2 run in the first minute of the final period to swell the Falcons’ lead from two points to eight.
Clover came into the night off to a hot start this season, averaging 23.3 points per game.
When he was on the floor, North Clarion had few answers for him or A-C Valley’s other big man, Alex Preston.
Another 6-foot-5 forward, the senior led A-C Valley with 25 points on the night.
“We think these guys match up well against anybody we’re going to play,” said Falcons’ coach Brad Dittman. “Those are the kinds of games we expect from them.”
Clover and Preston were also key components last year for A-C Valley.
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This year, though, both have raised their games.
“It’s nice to have two big guys,” Preston said. “If they try to shut one of us down, we have another one. There’s not too much height in District 9 as it is and having two 6-foot-5 guys on one team, we kind of have to run it through that.”
A-C Valley did.
Clover and Preston are also good passers out of the post. They were effective at that, too, against North Clarion.
“They were making shots,” Dittman said. “And when they’re getting double- and triple-teamed down there, they were kicking it out and we were making shots from the outside tonight.”
Brody Dittman also had a big night for the Falcons, draining six 3-pointers — three in the opening eight minutes — and finished with 19 points.
It was a difficult recipe for North Clarion.
Still, the Wolves stormed back from an early seven-point deficit to take a 26-25 lead midway through the second quarter.
The lead changed hands multiple times after that with neither team leading by more than five until A-C Valley’s big spurt to start the fourth.
Second-chance points also hurt North Clarion (0-4).
“They rebounded well,” said North Clarion coach Mike Brown. “We missed some boxouts that would have helped. I won’t take anything away from the effort they showed.”
North Clarion’s leading scorer, senior guard Aiden Hartle, was also dogged by foul trouble.
He sat most of the second quarter after scoring eight in the first.
He finished with a team-high 18 for the Wolves.
North Clarion played well without Hartle on the floor. Drake Irwin added 15 points and Corbin Waterson came off the bench to go 5-of-5 from the floor for 11 points.
“It was nice to see those guys do that,” Brown said. “A couple of times we got into too much of a hurry and didn’t let the offense come to them. But the kids did a good job.”
Amid the fourth-quarter flurry, A-C Valley led by as many as 11. North Clarion cut the lead to seven with less than a minute remaining, but could get no closer.
“We were able to pull away there,” Coach Dittman said. “We have things to clean up, obviously, the turnovers. We’re still a work in progress with that. But it was just a great effort from these guys. We’re proud of them.”
Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.
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