Jan. 26, 2008

Final Stats

CLARION - Freshman Mike Sherry scored a career-high 30 points while adding seven assists and five rebounds to lead Clarion University to an 89-80 win over visiting Shippensburg in PSAC-West men's basketball action Saturday afternoon at Tippin Gym.

Sherry, whose previous career high was 25 vs. Fairmont State, connected on 11 of 13 shots including 8 of 11 3-pointers. His eight treys were one shy of the school record held by David Cruse (1991) and Kwame Morton (1994).

Scoring 18 of his 30 points in the second half, Sherry hit at least three key shots for the Golden Eagles.

His 3-pointer at 7:23 stopped a 9-0 Shippensburg run that had cut a 9-point Clarion lead to two points (64-62). He then connected on another 3-pointer with 3:43 left after the Red Raiders had closed to within a point, 75-74, and finally his driving lay-up with 2:23 left started a 6-0 run that expanded Clarion's lead from five to 11 points and put the game away.

Sherry was far from the only Clarion player to have a big day, though. Josh Yanke recorded his second consecutive double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds, while Ricky Henderson had 19 points and five boards on 7 of 9 shooting. Damon Gross added 11 points and five rebounds, and Lonnell Jones had a career-high 11 assists.

Shippensburg was led by Alex Jones' 27 points that including 6 of 11 from beyond the arc. Jones, who scored 18 of his tallies in the first half, added seven assists and two steals.

Derrick Graff also threw in 21 for Shippensburg on 10 of 19 shooting while adding seven rebounds, Justin Minter had 14 points and David Reisinger 12 off the bench.

Clarion led 43-39 at halftime and then used a 10-0 second-half run to take its biggest lead of the game at 60-47 with 12:34 left.

Shippensburg fought back going on the 9-0 run that was stopped by Sherry's 3-pointer with just over seven minutes left.

Clarion then expanded the lead back to eight points, 73-65, on a Ron Hollis three off a Sherry pass before Shippensburg answered with a 7-0 run to get back within one. The Red Raider still trailed by one, 75-74, when Sherry's second three started a 14-4 run for Clarion that put the game away.

Clarion returns to action Wednesday at Edinboro (7:30 p.m.).

NOTES - Clarion shot 59.3 percent from the field, its best field-goal percentage of the season. It was Clarion's best game from the field since shooting 59.4 percent vs. PSU-DuBois last season ... Sherry's 30 points are the most in a game at Clarion since Terrance Vaughns scored30 in Feb. 2006 and the most by a freshman since at least 1999.