INDIANA, Pa. - Closing out the 2021-22 season on the road at the Kovalchick Complex , the Clarion Men's Basketball team fell to PSAC West top ranked and nationally ranked IUP Wednesday night by a final score of 81-65. The loss moves the Golden Eagles to 9-18 on the season and 5-17 in the PSAC. The Crimson Hawks improve to 25-2 overall and 19-2 in PSAC with one game left to play before the start of the PSAC tournament.
Jordan Agyemang put the first Clarion points on the board at the 17:56 mark throwing down an uncontested dunk to pull Clarion back within a just one possession.
Trading three's for two's, IUP built a quick commanding lead in the first half, building a 14 point advantage after an Ethan Porterfield three at the 4:58 mark in the half.
Continuing to feed the hot hand of Porterfield, IUP managed to stretch their lead to as big as 19 points before
Mason Mraz made a three pointer at the 1:01 mark to put the Blue and Gold down 41-25 to close out the half.
The Golden Eagles shot 41% from the field in the first half, but just a staggering 15% from beyond the arc. IUP shot lights out, capitalizing on 18 of 33 (55%) shots from the field and 4 of 13 (31%) from beyond the arc.
Clarion started the half with a
Steve Kelly layup, but IUP picked up right where they left off in the first half, feeding their big man Porterfield building the lead back to 47-27.
The Blue and Gold continued to battle though, cutting the lead to 70-54 on a three ball from Mraz, but the Crimson Hawk attack was too blistering to smolder. IUP built a lead as large as 21 points before the final outcome.
Lawrence Lemon had a positive impact on the Clarion attack in the second half, putting in solid minutes off of the bench in relief. In 16 minutes of work, Lemon dished out two assists, grabbed two rebounds, forced a turnover and added two points on 1 of 2 shooting from the field in the fist half.
For the game Clarion shot an impressive 45% (26-58) from the field and 71% (5-7) from the charity stripe. On the other side of the ball IUP shot 55% (37-67) from field goal range and 24% (6-25) from beyond the arc.
For IUP Tomiwa Sulaiman paved the way with 18 points on 9 of 11 shooting, while grabbing a team high seven rebounds. Porterfield finished with 17 points, while Dave Morris added a double-double for the Crimson Hawks scoring 13 points and dishing out 12 assists.
Gerald Jarmon finished with a game high 20 points in 40 minutes of action, grabbing two rebounds and adding one assist, while Mraz played a season high 37 minutes, notching 16 points of 6 of 9 shooting from the field.
