Feb. 22, 2009

Box Score

CLARION - Slippery Rock outscored Clarion 17-12 in overtime to get a 95-90 win over the Golden Eagles Sunday afternoon at Clarion's Tippin Gym.

The game was tied at 78 at the end of regulation and was still knotted up at 84 with 1:32 left in overtime.

But Slippery Rock's Maurice Douglas scored five straight points, including a deep 3-pointer, to put The Rock up 89-84 with 54 seconds to play, and Clarion never got closer than four the rest of the way.

The Golden Eagles jumped on top of the 10th ranked team in the Atlantic Region 45-32 at halftime thanks to 11 points from Ron Hollis, nine from Josh Yanke and eight from Aaron Trail.

But Slippery rock slowly chipped away in the second half and used a 14-6 run in the last 6:18 of the half to force overtime. A Denell Stephens layup with 47 seconds left tied the game at 78. Each time had a chance to win the game in regulation but couldn't.

Trail and Hollis led Clarion with 18 points each with Trail going 13 of 15 from the free-throw line and adding three steals. Hollis had five rebounds. Mike Sherry added 16 points, four rebounds and three assists off the bench while hitting four 3-pointers. Yanke chipped in with 13 points and seven rebounds.

Stephens, who at one point scored 10 straight points at the end of regulation (eight) and the start of overtime (two) led all scorers with 34 points and completed a double-double with 13 rebounds. Maron Brown (19 points, 15 rebounds) and Kyle Camper (15 points, 12 assists, 5 rebounds) also had double-doubles for The Rock.

The game was the home finale for Clarion with Hollis, Yanke and David Blanks (7 points, 2 rebounds) playing their final games at Tippin Gym.

Clarion returns to action at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Lock Haven.

NOTES - This was the first overtime loss for Clarion since Jan. 6, 2007, 83-78, to East Stroudsburg. The Golden Eagles had won four straight overtime games. Clarion is now 9-8 in overtime games since 1999. It was the third time since 2006 that Clarion and Slippery Rock have gone to overtime. Clarion won 60-54 at home Jan. 25, 2006, and beat Slippery Rock 93-90 at The Rock in last season's regular-season finale ... The 13 free throws by Trail are the most in a game by the Golden Eagles since Terrance Vaughns hit 13 Jan. 25, 2006, against Slippery Rock (13 of 14).