“I think I played real good, but I think my teammates did even better,” Smith said. “I just wanted to get my teammates involved and have a great game.”

The 6-foot-5 senior, who is in his first year at Clarion after transferring from a school in Waldorf, Md., scored 14 first-quarter points helping the Bobcats to a 26-2 lead after one quarter.

Defense was the key to the early Clarion success with the ‘Cats forcing 13 Fires turnovers in the first quarter turning those giveaways into 22 of the 26 points in the quarter.

“That’s been our goal all year,” Clarion first-year head coach Jess Quinn said. “From the first practice own, our philosophy is we want to play defense. We want to get quick scores and play tough defense.”

For the game, Clarion turned Forest Area over 29 times and scored 34 points off those giveaways.

The Bobcats also shot the ball extremely well hitting on 61.5 percent of their shots in the game (32 of 52) including shooting nearly 65 percent (20 of 31) in the first half.

“That is another thing we talked about on offense, ball movement,” Quinn said. “We want to get as many people involved as we can. It helps when you have a Jonathan Smith who attracts a lot of attention. You saw tonight how he will distribute the ball. He is a very good passer, sees the the court well like a guard does. That was our focus tonight, to get as many people involved as we can and then that leads to good shots.”

Cam Craig added 13 points for Clarion on 5 of 7 shooting with a pair of 3-pointers, while Bo Miller chipped in with eight points and Ceventh Lynch-Skunda seven.

After the rough first quarter, Forest Area played decent, especially in the second half when the Fires shot 42.9 percent (9 of 21) from the floor while only turning the ball over 11 times.

Sophomore Seth Berlin finished with a season-best 16 points on 7 of 11 shooting while also gathering five rebounds. Andrew Schwab added five points.

CLARION 71, FOREST AREA 31

Score by Quarters

Clarion 26 15 24 6 — 71

Forest 2 9 13 7 — 31

CLARION — 71

Ryan Anthony 2 0-0 4, Bo Miller 4 0-1 8, Jonathan Smith 11 1-2 23, Ty Burford 2 0-0 4, Cam Craig 5 1-1 13, Spencer Miller 1 0-0 2, Craig Kerr 1 0-0 2, Reed Anthony 2 0-0 6, Zach Bauer 0 0-0 0, Tom Hearst 0 0-0 0, Austin Hummell 1 0-0 2, Ceventh Lynch-Skunda 3 1-2 7, Mark Liu 0 0-2 0, John Allen 0 0-0 0, Luke Nellis 0 0-0 0. Totals 35 3-8 71.

FOREST AREA — 31

Cody Slater 0 0-1 0, Matt Paulsen 1 0-0 2, Clayton Work 1 0-0 2, Andrew Schwab 2 1-2 5, Zac Testani 1 0-0 2, Dereck Marshall 1 0-0 2, Martin Ralston 0 0-0 0, Austin Johnino 0 0-0 0, Dillion DiCorpo 1 0-0 2, Seth Berlin 7 2-3 16, Daniel Parrett 0 0-0 0, . Totals 14 3-6 31.

THREE-POINTERS — Clarion 4 (Craig 2, Reed Anthony 2).