INDIANA, Pa. --- The Clarion men's basketball team went up against one of the toughest teams in the nation on Wednesday night, falling on the road to IUP by a 87-55 score at the Kovalchick Center.
 
The Crimson Hawks entered the game ranked first in the national coaches' poll and second in the D2SIDA national poll. That didn't keep the Golden Eagles from remaining competitive early in the game, before IUP pulled away for good.
 
Jayson Harris went off for 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting, while Steve Kelly added 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting. Kelly also pulled down a team-high six rebounds and dished out two assists. Gerald Jarmon scored seven points, putting him just 13 points away from reaching 1,000 points for his career. His next opportunity to break that mark will come this weekend when Clarion hosts Edinboro at Tippin Gym.
 
The Golden Eagles showed no sign of backing down from the Crimson Hawks in the first half, responding from a slow start to keep with IUP in the opening minutes. Steve Kelly scored six straight Clarion points at one point in the half, making a fast break layup at the 15:59 mark and adding one on the next possession to cut IUP's advantage to just 9-8. The Crimson Hawks stretched that advantage to three possessions, though Kelly struck again at the 10:43 mark to make it 20-12.
 
Mekhi Reynolds pulled the Golden Eagles within just a pair of possessions, hitting a three-pointer after Damir Brooks turned it over to pull within 21-15. Gerald Jarmon scored at the 7:07 mark to make it 27-19 but the lead eventually reached double-digits, an advantage the Crimson Hawks held for the remainder of the first half as they went to the locker room with a 38-27 lead.
 
The Crimson Hawks dialed it up in the second half, though, going on a long run to build up a big lead on the Golden Eagles. IUP built a 30-point lead by the middle of the second half, holding the Golden Eagles on a scoring drought and capitalizing on their own opportunities. Kelly drove for a layup to cut the lead to 40-29 at the 19:02 mark, but that would be the last Clarion field goal until Jayson Harris's jumper at the 15:32 mark. Jarmon hit his first three-pointer of the night at the 13:52 mark to cut it to 52-38 but IUP continued to roll, holding Clarion without another field goal for a good stretch.
 
IUP's lead eventually reached 30 points with 8:29 remaining in the action, after Dallis Dillard made a transition bucket. The deficit hovered around that mark for much of the rest of the game as the Crimson Hawks closed it out.
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