Jan. 6, 2008

Box Score

KUTZTOWN -Demetrius Graham's 18-foot, foul-line extended jumper with three seconds left lifted the Clarion University men's basketball team to a 68-66 win at Kutztown in PSAC Crossover play Sunday afternoon.

Clarion (7-5), which was playing with just seven players, rallied from a 7-point deficit in the last 10 minutes and a 3-point deficit in the final 1:30 to get the win.

Josh Yanke (North Canton, OH) led the Golden Eagles with 19 points on 7 of 12 shooting including 3 of 4 from 3-point range, while David Blanks (Erie/Strong Vincent) had a career-high 18 points for Clarion. Damon Gross (Pittsburgh/Westinghouse) added a double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds. Graham (Detroit) chipped in with seven points, nine assists and two steals, and Lonnell Jones (Brooklyn, NY) had nine points and six rebounds.

Stephen Dennis led Kutztown (6-5) with 21 points, five rebounds, Andre Woodlin had 12 points and six boards and Dave Ben had 11 points.

Clarion trailed 53-46 with 10:03 to play but went on a 9-2 run to tie the game at 55 on an old-fashion 3-point play by Gross with 6:54 left.

The teams then battled evenly for the next five minutes with Kutztown taking three different leads only to see Clarion answer each time before a 3-pointer by Yanke, who had just one three going into the game and four in his 2-year Clarion career, tied the game at 62 with 1:57 left.

Kutztown, however, seemed to take control of the game with the next three points going ahead 65-62 on an old-fashion 3-point play by Dennis with 1:39 left.

Clarion, though, rallied behind two Gross free throws and a Gross layup with 49 seconds left to take a 66-65 lead, its first lead since a 30-29 halftime edge.

Kutztown's Nate Edwards, though, was fouled with 29 seconds left and hit the first free throw to tie the game at 66. He missed the second, however, and Graham won the game with his last-second jumper, Clarion's first game-winning shot in the final 10 seconds since Chris Buchanan beat Lock Haven with a jumper with 2.3 seconds left Feb. 8, 2006.

Clarion returns to action at 1 p.m. Saturday when it hosts Millersville.

NOTES - The Golden Eagles have won six of their last seven games and are 7-2 since starting the year 0-3 ... Clarion shot 39.3 percent (24 of 61) from the floor including 39.1 percent (9 of 23) from 3-point land and 11 of 19 (57.9 percent) from the free-throw line, while Kutztown shot 45.3 percent (29 of 64) from the floor but just 13.3 percent (2 of 15) from 3-point land and 54.5 percent (6 of 11) from the foul line ... Clarion outrebounded Kutztown 41-39, and both teams had 11 turnovers.