CLARION, Pa. – The Clarion men's basketball team authored a furious rally to pull within just a few buckets at the end of the game but could not complete the comeback against Kutztown, with the Golden Eagles falling 74-67 to the Golden Bears at Tippin Gymnasium on Wednesday.  Clarion falls to 8-8 overall, 5-5 in Pennsylvania State Athletics Conference action.
 
Kutztown led 37-28 at halftime and Clarion trailed by as many as 15 points in the game but the Golden Eagles were able to fight back against the Golden Bears, making it just a four-point game with 35 seconds remaining.  However, Kutztown closed it out wit ha solid performance defensively, keeping Clarion from scoring from the field in the final 1:17 to take the win.
 
Rob Agurs finished with a team-high 19 points, with 13 of those coming in the second half.  Andre' Anthony also saved his best for the second half, scoring 10 of his 12 points in the last 20 minutes, and Tim Gill came off the bench for a 16-point performance.  Kutztown won the rebounding battle 43-35 and was on fire in the first half, shooting 50.0 percent from the field and finishing the game at 46.7 percent.
 
Anthony Lee put Kutztown ahead 52-37 with 16:10 to play in regulation but Clarion rallied back to put the pressure on the Golden Bears.  Justin Grant scored on a transition bucket to make it just 52-41 and Anthony added a midrange jumper with 14:30 to go to make it just 52-43.  Ethan Ridgeway briefly put the Golden Bear lead back into double-digits with a three-pointer to make it 60-48, but it would never get that way again after Agurs finished an old-fashioned three-point play to make it 60-53 at the 8:49 mark.
 
Agurs added a pair of free throws to make it just 63-57, and Anthony made it a two-possession ballgame with a three-pointer off a fee from Justin Grant to make it 68-62.  Agurs finished off another and-one with 1:17 remaining to cut the Kutztown lead to 71-66, and he added another free throw to make it a four-point game on the next possession.  The Golden Bears kept Clarion at arm's length for the remainder, though, holding on for the win.
 
The first half very quickly went into Kutztown's favor as the Golden Bears opened on a 13-3 run.  Grant tipped in his own offensive rebound at the 12:38 mark to make it just an 16-11 game and Gill made it just a two-point deficit at the 7:03 mark, but Kutztown bumped the lead back up to nine points as Lee made a three-pointer with eight seconds remaining in the half, making it 37-28 at the break.