CLARION, Pa. – After trailing by as many as 11 points midway through the first half, the Clarion University men's basketball team clawed its way back to win a thriller 64-62 at home versus Lake Erie College on a buzzer beater by Jarrod Stukes. Tonight's win marks the first win at the helm for Golden Eagle head coach Damian Pitts and his staff.

With just 2:35 remaining in the game, the Golden Eagles trailed by just one point and put the game in the hands of their senior guard Elijah Cottrill who managed to score the last five of seven points to put Clarion in a spot to win the game.
 
With the Storm trailing by two points, Kevin Peterson tied the ball game at 60 all with a pair of free throws with just one minute remaining. Cottrill put the Golden Eagles back on top with a pair of free throws of his own, but Peterson answered with a layup to tie the game one more time with just 22 seconds remaining.
 
Coming out of their final timeout, Clarion turned to their  sophomore point guard Stukes who would not be rejected. After driving the lane and losing the ball Stukes managed to reclaim possession and go up under the basket to knock down a heavy contested layup as time expired, giving Clarion the win.  

The Golden Eagles improve to 1-5 overall , while Lake Erie drops to 4-3 overall.  

It was certainly a tale of two halves for Clarion as the Golden Eagles struggled from the floor in the first half, shooting just 28% from the field and 28.6% from three point range. The second half proved to be much stronger, as they knocked down 15 of 27 attempts (55.6%) while also shooting 6 of 14 (42.9%) from beyond the arc 100% from the charity stripe.

Kaison Branch finished with a game-high 20 points, while Cottrill  and Aaron Hilzendeger added 10 points. Cottrill also finished with a season high six assist, while Branch finished with eight boards to go along with his 20 points. James Price added eight points and eight rebounds in 27 minutes of action.

Stevan Rodriguez contributed seven points and one steal on the night, while Jaiquil Johnson added a solid five points off of the bench. Kass Taylor played a solid 10 minutes, adding two points and two rebounds.

For Lake Erie, Gabe Kynard led the Storm with 17 points, six rebounds and four assists, while Peterson added 13 points and 12 boards.

The Golden Eagles will play their final game of a four-game home stand on Wednesday, December 4^th, when they host Malone University at 7:00pm in Tippin Gym.