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Basketball Season Ends For Jon Smith And Greg Bean With Medaille Playoff Loss (03/05/17)

Clarion Area alums Jon Smith and Greg Bean and the Medaille College Mavericks saw their season come to an end with an opening round 89-82 loss in the NCAA Division III playoffs, to the homestanding Susquehenna College Riverhawks, at Houts Gymnasium in Selinsgrove, on Friday night (March 3rd).

(Photos provided by Medaille) Proud Clarion Alumni, Medaille assistant coach Greg Bean and freshman forward Jon Smith with the AMCC championship trophy

Susquehenna led 41-35 at the half and then had a one point 48-47 advantage in the second half to set the final.

Jon, who is just a freshman, finished the game with 4 points and an assist, had some solid stats for the  Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Tournament and regular season champion Mavericks. Playing in 27 games, Jon averaged 15.4 minutes of playing time, scoring 167 points and pulling down 111 rebounds. He also had 7 steals and three blocked shots.

Greg the former head coach at Redbank Valley, is an assistant coach for Medaille, who finished the season at 21-7 and 16-2 in the AMCC.

Earlier in the week,Jon shared this quote about his season, and Coach Bean, “Playing for Medaille and transitioning from high school to college basketball has been an eye opening experience. It can be challenging balancing classes, practice, traveling and studies, but in order to be a college basketball player you have to be willing to make sacrifices and put the work in.

“I’m learning a lot from my coaches especially Coach Bean. He’s helped me alot with developing my game. Winning the AMCC campionship and going to the NCAA Tournament my freshman year is just a great accomplishment. It’s awesome!​”

Coach Greg said, “This season has been an unbelievable experience. We have a great group of young men and it has been neat to see Jonathan fit in and excel on and off the court here at Medaille. The amount of time and effort these guys have put in to get to where we are does not go unnoticed.

“To see the excitement of our players in the final seconds of the (AMCC) championship game was unlike anything I have ever experienced. Being able to share that experience with someone that went through the same playing experiences at Clarion Area is pretty cool. I tell him all the time he’s not even the best player to come out of Clarion in our program so we, well mainly I, have fun with it.”

Great to see these two having such a good time and the good natured humor they share with each other.

(Guys, you make Clarion very proud!!!! Continued success in future seasons!!!!)