By Todd Shapiro

SULLIVAN TWP. — Clearview needed one half of basketball Tuesday to figure out the key to overcoming Black River’s sizeable height advantage.

Make sure the Pirates’ big men never touched the ball.

The Clippers worked their 3-2 zone trap to perfection in the second half, forcing 17 turnovers to pull away with 69-56 win in Patriot Athletic Conference cross-division play.

Clearview (1-1, 1-1) squandered an eight-point lead to go into the half tied at 21, but came out possessed in third quarter and outscored the Pirates 27-14.

“Once they got the ball inside we knew we were in trouble, so we came out in the third and turned up the pressure to make sure the ball didn’t get to the big men,” Clearview coach John Szalay said.

Black River’s post players — 6-foot-4 Dean Finkel, 6-foot-3 Tom Ziebro and 6-foot-5 John Guilford — towered over their smaller opponents, but the Clippers were able to counter with speed.

Senior Chad Anderson came off the bench and had five steals to go along with 11 points, but junior guard Clifton Brown was the key to the Clippers’ rally. Brown scored all of his game-high 20 points in the second half.

“We just came out in the second half like it was the start of a new game,” Brown said. “We corrected a lot of the mistakes we made in the first half.”

Meanwhile, the Pirates (1-2, 0-2) showed flashes of brilliance. They scored the final eight points of the first half and went on a 10-2 run to open the fourth quarter to cut the Clearview lead to 50-45, but were unable to keep their momentum going.

“(Clearview) was able to sustain effort over the entire game and we were only able to sustain effort for a stretch at a time,” Black River coach Don Brunker said. “That was the story of the game.”

Despite picking up two early fouls, Guilford had another double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds to go along with four blocks.

Zach Sword led the Pirates with a career-high 15 points, while Tyler Potter came off the bench to score 12 over the final three quarters.

“We know what we need to do,” Brunker said. “It’s just a matter of sustaining it for an entire game.”

Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

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