Lauer, Smail Come Up Big Again as Clarion Edges A-C Valley for Sixth Consecutive Victory

FOXBURG, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Devon Lauer and Dawson Smail have been tough to contain this season for the Clarion boys basketball team.

They have been quite the 1-2 punch.

Well, a 1-and-1A punch.

(Pictured above, Clarion’s Devon Lauer takes a shot over A-C Valley’s Brody Dittman)

They were at it again on the road at A-C Valley on Tuesday night, each scoring 16 points as the Bobcats held off a late Falcon rally for a 47-45 win.

Smail was right in the middle of it, getting several big steals, including one in the waning seconds to deny A-C Valley one final good look at tying or hitting a game-winner.

“We’ve been talking to him about being aggressive defensively, get some steals that we can turn into easy buckets on the other end,” said Clarion coach Scott Fox. “They’ve all worked hard. They’re being more aggressive as we continue to play better defense than last year. We weren’t as aggressive. We’re being more aggressive and it’s showing.”

Clarion Area High School sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Redbank Chevrolet and DuBrook.

Clarion (6-1, 4-0) has won six straight since a loss in the season-opener to Oil City.

The Bobcats have done it in part thanks to the tandem of Lauer and Smail.

Lauer scored 12 of his 16 points in the first half, including two 3-pointers, as Clarion led 31-28 at the break.

Smail had eight points in each half and helped Clarion take a 40-31 advantage late in the third quarter.

“What typically happens is (Lauer) will go off in the first half, and then they’ll get two guys up on him in the second,” Smail said. “And that’s kind of when I get my chunk of points. It just works out pretty well.”

It certainly has during the winning streak.

Opponents still haven’t found a way to stop both of them.

“They’re pretty tough to contain,” said A-C Valley co-coach Chris McNany. “I think they had 16 points apiece — it’s kind of what we expected. I mean, we were hoping to just contain them; we knew we weren’t gonna stop them. We were hoping our bigs inside could kind of muck it up in there a little bit and try to keep it low scoring. That’s exactly what we were able to do. Our guys did a good job.”

Brody Dittman hit his fifth 3-pointer of the game to cut the Clarion lead to just one point at 46-45 with 1:45 remaining.

After Smail drained one of two free throws, A-C Valley had two good looks — a pair of 3-pointers by Ryan Cooper and Dittman — but both rimmed out.

Smail then got a big steal and was fouled. He missed the front end of the 1-and-1, but Alex Preston pulled down the rebound with just 1.5 seconds left and heaved a full-court shot that didn’t cone close.

“It was definitely a big game for us,” Fox said. “We’re now 4-0 in the North, which is huge for the kids and for us moving on in the season.”

Clarion also got the victory without Gabe Simko, who was out due to an illness.

Simko is an inside presence for the Bobcats and has chipped in valuable points this season.

“We’re missing the big key player in Gabe,” Smail said. “That would have helped us tremendously. But we came in and pulled out the win.”

Smail’s brother, Derek Smail, helped pick up the slack for Simko’s absence. He was tasked with dealing defensively with A-C Valley’s two 6-foot-5 big men, Preston and Jay Clover, and did well.

Preston scored 12 and Clover added nine.

Both were below their season averages.

“Without Gabe, we had to figure out how to score more points, because he gives us about 12 to 14 a game from time to time,” Fox said. “We also had to go against the big guys underneath. It was a battle and And the kids stood up to the challenge and worked hard all night. Derek really played well underneath and so did Dauntae (Girvan) and Logan (MacKinley). It was a team effort.”

Clarion Area High School sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Redbank Chevrolet and DuBrook.