Box Score CLARION – The Clarion University men's basketball team had four players score in double digits led by 16 points from Leonard Patterson, but it wasn't enough to offset a 37-point effort by Gannon freshman Adam Blazek as the visiting Golden Knights toppled the Golden Eagles 91-80 Saturday night at Tippin Gym.
 
Thanks to a 13 of 18 performance by Blazek, Gannon (12-10 overall, 10-8 PSAC West) shot 65.9 percent (29 of 44) from the floor and also went 28 of 36 from the free-throw line.
 
Freshman Winfield Willis added 15 points for Clarion (14-10, 10-8), while Bud Teer had his eighth double-double of the year with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Paul McQueen chipped in 14 points.
 
Former Golden Eagle Shameel Carty added 15 points for Gannon, while Darrell Blanton had 13 points, five rebounds and four assists.
 
Clarion led by six, 58-52, following a Patterson three-pointer by 12:13 to play, but Gannon went on a 19-7 run that saw Carty score nine points and Blazek eight to take a 71-65 advantage with 6:25 to play.
 
The Golden Eagles fought back on a Willis three and two free throws by Patterson to close within one, 71-70, with 4:57 left but a 9-2 Gannon spurt that featured three more Carty points and five made free throws put the game away.
 
Gannon used an early 15-2 run to take a 26-14 lead halfway through the first half and still led by nine, 37-28, with 3:37 left in the half before Clarion answered with a half-closing 11-5 run to get within three, 42-39, at halftime. A pair of Calvin Edwards three-pointers fueled the run, and Edwards finished with nine points.
 
Being down just three at the half seemed to put Clarion in a good position considering Gannon shot nearly 70 percent (68.2 percent) in the half, and things appeared to be going the Golden Eagles way when they started the second half on a 19-10 run to take the six-point lead. It was a team run with Teer, McQueen, Willis, Edwards and Patterson all scoring led by five points from Patterson.
 
But Gannon never really cooled down shooting 63.6 percent in the second half while going 20 of 24 from the line.
 
The loss puts Clarion in a tie for fifth place in the PSAC West with Gannon a game back of California, although Gannon holds the tiebreaker over the Golden Eagles having swept the season series. The top four teams in the PSAC West make the PSAC playoff, and all teams have four games left.
 
Clarion returns to action at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday when it hosts Lock Haven.
 
NOTES – McQueen was honored before the game for scoring his 1,000^th career point Feb. 1 vs. Slippery Rock. He was given a game ball by Clarion head coach Ron Righter and Clarion athletic director Dave Katis … With the 13 rebounds, Teer now has 482 in his two-year career. He needs 18 more to become the 10^th player under Righter to grab 500, and he and McQueen would become the first teammates with 500 rebounds since Allen Stevens and David Shearer in 2002. The 13 boards also give Teer 210 on the season. He is the first Clarion player to have back-to-back 200-rebounds season since Ryan Wells in 2004 and 2005 … Willis' 15 points gives him 400 on the season. He is the second Golden Eagle freshman to reach 400 points joining the school's all-time leading scorer Kwame Morton (513 in 1991).