CLARION, Pa. --- The Golden Eagle men's basketball team got the better of Daemen in the second half, but Clarion could not overcome a significant halftime deficit in falling 97-76 to the Wildcats at Tippin Gymnasium on Sunday afternoon.
 
Turnovers told much of the story on Sunday, as the two sides combined for 36 total turnovers on the afternoon. Daemen got the better of that exchange, forcing 22 Golden Eagle turnovers and turning that into 26 points. Clarion scored 17 points off turnovers themselves, but they were also outrebounded by a 41-33 margin.
 
Cam Kearney logged a game-high 20 points on 7-of-16 shooting, with the sophomore playing 38 minutes and not coming off the floor in the first half. Jayson Harris and Jeremy Thomas II recorded 15 and 13 points respectively, and both pulled down a team-high eight rebounds. Gavin Cote made his season debut with 11 points off the bench, knocking down three three-pointers on four attempts.
 
Things were competitive early on, with the Golden Eagles taking an 8-6 lead after Jaylen Shippen dumped a pass into the paint for Justice Easter to lay in. The Wildcats went up briefly, but Harris tied it back up at the 14:44 mark with a layup, with Shippen again finding the open man down low. Daemen scored 13 of the next 16 points to build a double-digit lead, but Thomas cut that down tin eight points with a bucket with 11:21 to go in the half.
 
Clarion kept pace for the next few minutes, with Jihad Simpson making a trey with 7:37 to go in the half to make it 30-22, but that would be the last time in the half that the Golden Eagles would be within three possessions. The Wildcats eventually opened up a 52-28 lead at the break, with Nick MacDonald scoring with 41 seconds left to set the deficit heading into the locker room.
 
The Golden Eagles outscored Daemen 48-45 in the second half, opening the period with a 9-0 run. It included two transition buckets, including a three-pointer by Kearney and a layup by Thomas made possible on back-to-back steals by Shippen. The latter bucket cut the deficit down to 15 points, and Thomas scored again on a second-chance opportunity at the 17:13 mark. The Wildcats stabilized, though, and the lead hovered around 20 points for the remainder of the game.
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