EDINBORO, Pa. – The Golden Eagle women's basketball team mounted a furious comeback in the third and fourth quarters, but Edinboro denied Clarion by pulling away late for a 73-54 victory at McComb Fieldhouse on Wednesday.
 
The Fighting Scots built up a 20-point lead at the halftime break, but the Golden Eagles dutifully went to work to cut into that deficit. They did so, pulling to within nine points by the midway part of the fourth quarter. Much of that came from Clarion's ability to get stops on the defensive end, with the Golden Eagles holding Edinboro to just a 26.7 field goal percentage in the third quarter.
 
Clarion scored the first six points of the second half, with Sierra Bermudez finishing off an and-one and Charjae Brock knocking down a three-pointer to cut the lead to 43-29. Cory Santoro added to the barrage with a three-pointer at the 4:37 mark of the third, prompting a timeout from the Fighting Scot bench. The lead finally went back into the single digits at the 1:27 mark, when Jada Smith made the second of two free throws to cut it to 50-41.
 
The two teams traded buckets for much of the early part of the fourth quarter, though, with Santoro making a fast break jumper at the 4:47 mark to again cut it to nine points. That made it 63-54, but the Golden Eagles got no closer as Edinboro went on a late run to ice it. The Fighting Scots scored the final 10 points of the game and held Clarion scoreless from that point on to take the win.
 
Smith and Allyson Kirby were the two best players on the boards for either side, coming down with eight and nine rebounds respectively to help the Clarion effort. Santoro finished with a team-high 18 points, going 7-of-11 from the field and doing most of her damage during the Golden Eagles' run in the third quarter. Bermudez added 12 points.
 
The first quarter looked similar to parts of the game between the two teams on Monday, with Edinboro opening the game on a 10-0 run before Clarion embarked on a 10-2 run of their own. Smith sparked things by making Clarion's first bucket of the game, and then setting up the second by pulling down a defensive rebound and kicking it up to Bermudez for a three-pointer. Santoro made jumpers on consecutive possessions in the first quarter, with the latter making it 15-12. Bermudez added another three-pointer at the end of the quarter to cut the lead to 17-15 at the period break. Santoro tied it at 17 with two free throws at the start of the second quarter, but Clarion went cold, not scoring again until Santoro hit a three-pointer with 4:34 left in the half. Read Full Article