INDIANA, Pa. – The Clarion women's basketball team played a consensus top-four team in the nation tight for three quarters on Thursday evening, but the Golden Eagles were unable to pull off the upset in falling 79-62 to #3/4 IUP at the Kovalchick Center. Clarion (9-16, 3-15 PSAC) will face off with Edinboro on Saturday.
It was the second straight meeting in which the Golden Eagles played tight with the nationally-ranked Crimson Hawks, this time holding the lead for a long period of time and putting pressure on the home team. IUP survived Clarion's early barrage, however, and re-took the lead for good late in the second quarter.
Kadijah Dickson and
Yndiah Bobo were the leading offensive forces for Clarion, with each scoring 17 points and shooting efficiently from the field.
Emily Hegedus finished with 13 points and had a team-high six rebounds.
The Golden Eagles stormed out to an early advantage over the Crimson Hawks, taking a 20-15 advantage at the end of the first quarter thanks in part to advantages at the free throw line and the three-point arc. Both teams shot well from the field in the opening quarter but Clarion added treys from
Emily Hegedus and
Taylor Moltz, the latter of which erased IUP's 8-2 advantage.
Both buckets were part of the Golden Eagles' 10-0 run that was capped by a transition bucket from
Yndiah Bobo, who scored off a steal from
Kadijah Dickson to make it 12-8. Bobo stretched the lead to 19-14 with an old-fashioned three-point play at the 1:23 mark, scoring through contact from Lauren Wolosik.
Clarion continued to lead into the second quarter, with Bobo making it a six-point advantage at 27-21. The Crimson Hawks closed the first half out on a 12-0 run to re-take the lead, though, going up 36-29 at the break. They held the lead steadily throughout the third and fourth quarters, going up by as many as 14 points in the third to keep the Golden Eagles at arm's length. Clarion continued to battle, though, drawing as close as seven points in the fourth quarter on a free throw by Bobo. Hegedus scored to make it 63-54 late in the period, but IUP pulled away for the double-digit win.
