EDINBORO –
Jamar Harrison's three-pointer with 0.5 seconds left lifted Clarion to a must-win 86-83 victory at Edinboro Saturday afternoon.
With the win, the Golden Eagles remain in the hunt for the fourth and final PSAC playoff spot awarded to the PSAC-West. Clarion is tied with Edinboro in fifth place just a ½ game back of California pending the Vulcans game with Mercyhurst Saturday night. All three teams have four conference games left.
“I just had the confidence to take the shot,”
Jamar Harrison, who hit Clarion's first game-winning shot since teammate
Lloyd Harrison beat California with a three-pointer at the buzzer last season, said. “We've had some of these close ones go against us this year, so it's nice to finally win one.”
Clarion had lost four straight PSAC-West games going into Saturday, including a pair of one-point losses in the final five seconds, and the Golden Eagles were facing a daunting challenge at Edinboro's McComb Fieldhouse where they were just 3-24 vs. the Fighting Scots since 1986.
And things didn't look good for Clarion in the first 10 minutes of the game, as the Golden Eagles got down 15, 31-16, with 7:53 left in the first half.
But Clarion started to climb its way back into the game in the second part of the opening half going on a 16-5 run late in the half to close within a point, 40-39, at halftime.
Jamar Harrison led the run with eight points, but Clarion also found a hero of different sort during the run with
Julius Berry, who had played in just four games all season and for just 21 minutes, scoring four key points during the run including the first two and added a rebound, a steal and a blocked shot. Berry finished the game playing 19 minutes and scoring the four points with two rebounds, the block and the steal.
The second half turned out to be a back-and-fourth affair with the lead changing hands 11 times and the game being tied on seven other occasions.
Edinboro grabbed its final lead at 71-69 on a Chris Klimchock jumper with 7:02 left.
But Clarion answered with an 8-0 run to go up five, 77-72, on an old-school three by
Jamar Harrison.
Edinboro wasn't through scoring the next five points to tie the game at 77 with 3:43 to play, but Clarion answered and had an 83-79 lead with 52 seconds left.
The Fighting Scots kept coming and tied the game on a free throw by Danny Walsh and then a three-pointer by Clint Nicholson, who had been 0-for-6 from behind the arc to that point, with 19.1 left.
After a timeout, Clarion kind of got itself trapped in the corner before
Jamar Harrison lifted the game-winning trey from just in front of the Golden Eagle bench.
The Harrison boys – no relation – were on top of their games.
In addition to the game-winning shot, Jamar had 32 points, the second most of his career, nine rebounds and three steals. Meanwhile, point guard
Lloyd Harrison had a career-high 34 points to go with five rebounds, three steals and an assist.
Paul McQueen added 11 points and seven rebounds.
The Harrison's combined to score 43 of Clarion's 47 points in the second half with Jamar scoring 22 and Lloyd 21. The two of them were the only Golden Eagles to score in the final 14:35 combining for Clarion's final 31 points.
Danny Walsh led Edinboro with 21 points, while Bryan Theriot had 18 points and seven rebounds, Courtney Harden-Pullium adding 13 points, Anthony Lytle 12 points and eight rebounds and Cory Summerville 10 points.
Clarion returns to action at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Lock Haven before returning home to host IUP at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 19.
NOTES –
Lloyd Harrison's previous career high was 29 points Jan. 4 vs. Millersville.
Jamar Harrison's career high is 33 points vs. West Chester Jan. 3 …
Jamar Harrison was 14 of 16 from the field. The 14 made shots are tied for the fifth most at Clarion since 1981 … The Harrison's each hitting the 30-point plateau mark the first time since at least 1981 that Golden Eagle teammates have each scored 30 points in one game. Records prior to 1981 are not completely available.
