CLARION, Pa. — The Golden Eagle basketball teams were unable to come away with a win against Edinboro as the men’s team honored its senior class at Tippin Gym this weekend.
Steve Kelly (pictured above) was honored in a pregame Senior Day ceremony.
The men’s team held the advantage against the Fighting Scots after a low-scoring but entertaining first half, but it was Edinboro who came out on top on Saturday afternoon as the Fighting Scots beat Clarion 83-62 in Tippin Gym.
Clarion turned around the first half with a huge run midway through, rallying from a 20-12 deficit with an 18-2 run that put Edinboro on their heels and gave the Golden Eagles an eight-point lead of their own. Cam Kearney got the roll going with a thunderous dunk over Will Taylor at the 12:56 mark, drawing a foul and making the subsequent free throw to make it 20-15. Jayson Harris followed up with a three-pointer at the 11:16 mark to make it a two-point game, and the sophomore forward later tied it with a midrange jumper.
Later in the half, Gavin Cote sank a three-pointer at the 6:51 mark, giving his team a 26-24 advantage, and Connor Spratt forced the Fighting Scots into a timeout after driving to the hoop and scoring on the fast break 25 seconds later. Cote finished off the run with a short jumper on a second chance opportunity, giving Clarion a 30-22 advantage.
The Golden Eagles still held the lead heading into the halftime break, despite Madior Seye scoring with 35 seconds remaining in the first to make it 37-34. The start of the second half was lopsided in favor of the Fighting Scots, who outscored Clarion 26-4 over the span of the first 9:32 to open up a 19-point lead.
Clarion continued to battle, pulling to within 61-49 after Spratt converted a four-point play with a three-pointer made through a foul by Bernie Blunt. Kearney scored on the next trip down the floor as well, making it a 10-point game and punctuating a 10-0 run. Ten points was all the closer the Golden Eagles got, though, as the Fighting Scots held on through a choppy final seven minutes of action that saw frequent whistles and fouls from both sides.
Kearney scored a team-high 22 points to go with five rebounds and three assists, while Cote finished with 10 points.
Kelly finished with eight points, three assists and two steals.
Clarion Golden Eagles Women’s Surge in Second Half but Fall to Edinboro
The Golden Eagle women’s basketball team rebounded from a sluggish first quarter to pull within a single possession late in the game, but Clarion came up just short in falling 63-57 to Edinboro.
Clarion struggled at the outset of the contest but turned things on starting in the second quarter, outscoring the Fighting Scots by five points over the final 30 minutes of action. After trailing by 11 points at the end of the first quarter, the Golden Eagles got as close as one point early in the fourth, after Dominika Logue sank a midrange jumper just 1:32 into the final period. That cut the deficit to 50-49, but Edinboro went on a 9-0 run in the next three minutes to again extend the lead to double-figures.
Then it was the Golden Eagles’ turn to go on a run. Hannah Wilkerson got things going with a make at the 5:32 mark, and just 50 seconds later she drew it down to five points with a bucket in the paint. After a series of defensive stops Autumn Taylor cut it down to a one-possession ballgame, draining a three-pointer from the right wing to make it 59-57 with 2:21 to play.
Edinboro halted the Golden Eagle offense from there, though, holding them scoreless for the remainder while sinking four free throws down the stretch to clinch the win.
The scoring standout of the day was Sadre’a Rougeau, who set a new season-high with 19 points on the day. She rarely came off the court, playing a team-high 37 minutes and making them count. Siara Conley, meanwhile, pulled down a game-high nine rebounds, while DayLynn Thornton and Heather Ansell each recorded five assists.
Rougeau was the one to kick things off in the second quarter, hitting a three-pointer on the team’s first offensive possession just 12 ticks in. She drilled another one at the 6:55 mark of the half, and Logue followed with one of her own on the next possession to cut Edinboro’s lead to 22-16. Rougeau made a short jumper from the paint to cut it to 26-21, and Ansell made it a two-possession ballgame with a three-pointer with just over a minute to play in the first half.
The Fighting Scots rallied a bit at the end of the period to make it a 37-29 lead at the break, and they led by as many as 14 points midway in the third quarter. Alyssa McLellon and started the process of bringing her team back with a midrange jumper, and Logue made a three-pointer to cut the lead to 46-40. McLellon then finished off an old-fashioned three-point play by scoring through contact from Hayley Sims, making the free throw on the back end to cut Edinboro’s lead to 48-45.
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