INDIANA, Pa. – The Clarion women's basketball team rallied to make things competitive in the fourth quarter, but the Golden Eagles ultimately dropped a road game, falling 68-57 to IUP at the Kovalchick Complex on Wednesday.  Clarion (14-13, 11-10 PSAC) are now locked into the sixth seed in the upcoming PSAC Tournament.  They are guaranteed to face either Mercyhurst or Edinboro, who both enter the final regular season game with identical records.
 
Delrika Jones-Carey notched her second double-double of the season with 17 points and a game-high 13 rebounds against the Crimson Hawks, and is averaging 17.3 points and 9.0 rebounds per game in her last four contests.  Jordan Bekelja and Tyra Polite both scored 14 points, with Polite also adding five assists.
 
Clarion led 20-17 after the first period but was unable to keep the pressure on the Crimson Hawks, who took a 35-24 lead into the locker room at the halftime break.  The Golden Eagles cut the lead to just two possessions by the end of the third, but IUP pulled away in the fourth quarter.
 
The Golden Eagles' largest lead of the game came late in the first quarter, and came courtesy of a 11-2 run to take a 20-12 lead.  Jones-Carey put the Golden Eagles ahead 11-10 with a layup at the 6:06 mark, and Polite drilled a three-pointer with 4:22 left to make it an 18-12 advantage.  Jones-Carey capped the run with a make in the paint, taking a feed from Jen Straw and laying it in.  Bekelja kept it a two-possession lead with a layup at the start of the second quarter, making it 22-17, but IUP's Megan Smith put the Crimson Hawks ahead at the 6:45 mark and Clarion never led again.
 
A 12-2 run put Clarion back in the thick of it, though, as they turned a 39-24 deficit into just a 41-36 one in the third quarter.  Amesha Harden-Pullium made it 39-33 with a make in the paint at the 6:27 mark, and Bekelja punctuated the run with a three.  The lead stayed at five points at the end of the quarter thanks to a layup by Jones-Carey, and though Straw would go on to make it 50-47 early in the fourth, the Golden Eagles got no closer.