SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – Five players scored in double digits led by 20 points each from Darius Stevens and Aaron Johnson, as the Clarion University men's basketball team gave first-year head coach Marcess Williams a win in his debut, 89-76, over Felician at the Wolf Bus Lines Classic at Shippensburg.
 
"It's a great start," Williams said. "With the late change and unstableness because of it, to be able to come out and compete and beat another Division II team is satisfying for the kids. For the staff, it lets us know what we are doing, we are going down the right path."
 
Stevens was at his best down the stretch spearheading a 12-1 run for Clarion with nine points that took a 2-point lead (73-71) with 4:19 left and expanded it into a 13-point advantage (85-72) with 1:57 to go. Seven of those tallies came from the free-throw line, highlighting a solid team-wide effort from the line that saw the Golden Eagles (1-0) go 17 of 23 including 13 of 17 in the second half.
 
"He was aggressive the whole game," Williams said. "He didn't have a great shooting night, but he was able to stay with what we were doing and he stepped up and shot well from the line late."
 
Freshman Brandon Williams had the other three points during the run and finished with 15 in his collegiate debut, while fellow freshman Cameron Grumley added 14 points and BJ Andrews 10.
 
Jeyvi Miavivululu led Felician with 17 points while J.R. Pringley added 11 points.
 
Points off turnovers were the major difference in the contest with Clarion scoring 34 tallies off of 27 Felician giveaways to just seven points for the Golden Falcons on just 10 Clarion giveaways. The Golden Eagles had 15 steals including four from BJ Andrews and four from Brandon Williams.
 
"That is what I've been saying the whole time," Williams said. "It's what we are committed to. Our game goal was to force 25 turnovers, and we had 27. We did what we needed to do. When you get the live ball turnovers it makes offense easier."
 
Clarion also won the battle of second-chance points outscoring Felician 19-12 thanks to 18 offensive rebounds. Johnson had a big day on the boards with 13 completing his fifth career double-doubles. Stevens added eight rebounds.
 
"Both Darius and Aaron had phenomenal games," Williams said. "They are our older guys, and we need them to play well."
 
The Golden Eagles led big at halftime, 47-33, thanks to a strong shooting half that saw them hit 43.9 percent of their shots (18 of 41) including 7 of 15 3-pointers.
 
But the shooting cooled down for Clarion in the second half, and Felician took advantage rallying to tie the game at 55 on w Will Thompson layup with 12:21 to play.
 
Johnson, though, answered with a 3-pointer, one of 10 by the Golden Eagles in the game, to give Clarion the lead back.
 
Felician came strong again tying the score at 62 on an A.J. Kemp free throw with 9:06 left, but again Clarion had the answer, this time in the form of an 11-3 run that started with a Grumley triple at the 8:19 mark and included points from Stevens (2), Andrews (2) , Williams (2) and Matt D'Amico (2) as well. D'Amico, another freshman making his collegiate debut, added eight points.
 
"We had a lot of built-in excuses we could have used from not finishing," Williams said. "But the guys took it in strike and came back and went to another gear, another level. It was good to see. Our conditioning paid dividends down the stretch. Felician didn't have an extra grear, we did. That is what won us the game."
 
Trailing 73-65 with five minutes to play, the Golden Falcons had one final run left in them going on a 6-0 spurt that included a pair of layups by Lamine Cooper, to get within the two, 73-71.
 
Clarion returns to action at 3 p.m. Saturday when it faces Georgian Court also at Shippensburg.
 
NOTES – Williams is the first Golden Eagle coach to win his debut with Clarion since Joe DeGregorio beat Alliance 84-79 Dec. 4, 1974 … Since then, two other coaches have made their Clarion debuts – Dick Taylor and Ron Righter – but both lost … Stevens' 20 points was a Clarion career-best for the junior who missed all but six games last year with an injury … The 47 points at halftime were the second most in the first half by the Golden Eagles in the last four season against an NCAA Division II opponent … Clarion has now opened the season with victories in each of the last two years after beating Penn St.-DuBois 121-64 last season … Clarion is now 44-22 in season openers since the 1949-50 season and won their first neutral-site opener since beating Houghton at St. Vincent in 1993.