MANSFIELD, Pa. – The Clarion men's basketball team saw its six-game winning streak snapped on the road on Friday, as the Golden Eagles narrowly fell to Mansfield 68-65 in Pennsylvania State Athletics Conference play.  Clarion (6-3, 4-1 PSAC) will get back after it tomorrow afternoon when they face Lock Haven on the road.
 
The Golden Eagles led for much of the game but were passed by the Mountaineers in the final minutes, with Mansfield taking a one-point lead with 4:21 remaining in the game.  The home team closed it out with a perfect performance at the free throw line, making each of their last four tosses from the charity stripe to eke out the win.
 
Tim Gill led the way with 16 points and nine rebounds for the Golden Eagles, going a perfect 5-of-5 from the field and 6-of-10 from the free throw line in 27 minutes on the floor.  BJ Andrews continued his recent stretch of hot play with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting while also recording three rebounds and two steals.  Justin Dobbs came off the bench for the Golden Eagles and scored 10 points in 19 minutes.
 
The key stretch in the game came in the final six minutes of action when Eric Lewis put the Mountaineers ahead 60-59 after a fast break layup.  Rob Agurs briefly put the Golden Eagles back on top with a pair of makes at the free throw line but Lewis put his team ahead for good with a jumper at the 4:21 mark.  Gill cut the deficit to 64-63 when he made a pair of tosses from the line and Agurs put Clarion back up on a fast break layup with 2:02 left. 
 
Matt Tamanosky scored on a putback to put the Mountaineers back up, though, and Gerisimos Koutoufas made two free throws with 16 seconds left to close out the game.
 
The two teams traded the lead for much of the first half, with Clarion opening on a 5-0 run that was capped by a three-pointer by Andrews.  Justin Dobbs put the Golden Eagles ahead 20-19 on a three-pointer and struck again a few points later with another trey to make it 25-21.  Andre' Anthony added a pair of free throws to bump the lead to seven points and Andrews made it a nine-point advantage after swiping the ball from Da'Quan Jones and racing down the court for the transition bucket.
 
The lead ballooned all the way to 10 points after a make by Gill with 24 seconds remaining, as the big man scored in the paint to make it 36-26.  Mansfield added another basket in the waning seconds of the half to cut the deficit to eight points entering the halftime break.