CLARION, Pa. --- The Golden Eagle men's basketball team got their first win of the season with a high-scoring in exciting fashion on Tuesday night, with Clarion lighting up the scoreboard in a 94-47 victory over Penn State – DuBois in Tippin Gym.
Returning to something resembling a full roster for the first time this season, the Golden Eagles took the Nittany Lions to task, forcing 25 turnovers and turning those into 34 points. Conversely, Clarion committed just 12 turnovers on the night. The Golden Eagles dominated the battle on the glass 51-35 and outscored DuBois 19-6 in second-chance opportunities.
Gerald Jarmon got on the floor for the first time this season and was immediately back in midseason form, with the junior guard scoring a game-high 18 points in just 21 minutes of play. He led a pack of five Golden Eagles to break double-digits in scoring, including
Cam Kearney (15 points),
Jayson Harris (14 points),
Mekhi Reynolds (13 points) and
Justice Easter (11 points). Easter's points represented the biggest contribution of bench points on the night.
Harris and
Fray Nguimbi each finished with a game-high 10 rebounds, giving Harris a double-double and Nguimbi a six-point, 10-board night.
Despite the hefty disparity in points by the end of the night, the beginning of the game was actually relatively tight. Clarion opened on an 8-2 run punctuated by a three-pointer by Reynolds, but the Nittany Lions cut it to 11-7 after a bucket by Jaiquil Johnson at the 15:35 mark of the first half. Ashton Fortson pulled DuBois to within 15-12 on a fast break make, pulling down a defensive rebound and rushing down the floor for a bucket, but Kearney responded with a jumper on the next possession to stem the tide.
Johnson again forced the issue midway through the half, cutting it to 25-18 with a putback and then making it a five-point game with a bucket on the next possession. The Golden Eagles put their foot down from there, starting with an and-one by Jarmon that made it 30-20. Steve Kelley hit a trey off a skip pass from Jarmon at the 5:56 mark, and
Madior Seye swiped the ball from Will Helton and threw down a fast break dunk to make it 35-20.
From there it was off to the races. Harrison made it a 22-point game with a transition three-pointer, and
Justice Easter hit a bomb with five seconds remaining in the half to give Clarion a 53-24 lead at the break. Jarmon made it a 30-point game for the first time with a three-pointer at the 16:31 mark of the second half, and Kelly bumped the lead to 81-41 with a bucket just past the halfway point of the second.
Jaylen Shippen and
Dev Vaswani put their names in the scorebook, with Shippen scoring on a fast break at 3:31 and Vaswani converting a pass from Shippen into a bucket at 1:52.
