CLARION, Pa. – The Clarion men’s basketball team opened up the 2018 season Tuesday night, putting up a dominating performance at the Student Rec Center, cruising past Thiel College 90-80.
(Photo courtesy of Clarion University Athletics. Photo by Bri Nellis)
The Golden Eagles improve their record to 1-0, 0-0 on the young season, while the Tomcats fall to 0-2, 0-0.
The Tomcats jumped out to an early 23-12 halfway through the first half, but that would be their only lead of the night as the Golden Eagles raced to a 36-30 halftime lead.
Junior Lawrence Lemon put together a great performance, pumping 24 points on 9 of 17 shots to go along with 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks and 3 steals.
Fellow junior Stevan Rodriguez put up his first double-double in a Clarion uniform, netting 12 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
Transfer Jonathan Williams played heads up all night long dishing out a team-high 5 assists to go along with 11 points in 24 minutes played.
Elijah Cottrill continued his stellar play as well knocking down 5 of 8 shots for 14 points while grabbing 4 boards.
Perhaps the best play of the night came with 2 minutes to play in the second half. Brandon Williams caught the inbounds pass and found Lawerence Lemon streaking down the court. Lemon received the pass and went up and over Thiel defender Andre Williams for the dunk, drawing the and-one foul. Lemon would later knock down the free throw to ice the game.
The blue and gold controlled the glass all night grabbing 45 rebounds as a team, compared to Thiel’s 37.
Five Golden Eagles scored in double digits, shooting just under 50% from the field. Successful from the free throw line all night the blue and gold went 25-34 from the charity stripe, good enough for 74%.
Clarion will have a week-long break before they return to action on, Tuesday, November 20th when they host Davis and Elkins College. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m.
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