CLARION, Pa. --- The Golden Eagle men's basketball team controlled the tempo from beginning to end on Tuesday afternoon, capping off their crossover weekend with a convincing 92-72 home win over Kutztown at Tippin Gym. Clarion led by four at the halftime break but quintupled that lead before the end of the second, outscoring the Golden Bears 53-37 in the final 20 minutes.
 
The Golden Eagles enjoyed a well-balanced scoring attack, with all five of their starters breaking double figures. Steve Kelly led the way with 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting and was equally effective in helping his teammates find the hoop, dishing out nine assists compared to just two turnovers. Overall the Golden Eagles recorded 18 assists on 34 made shots.
 
Jeremy Thomas II and Cam Kearney tied for the team-high with seven rebound apiece, though Thomas finished with 18 points and Kearney 16 points. Justice Easter tacked on 11 points and six boards while Jayson Harris gave his team 10 points.
 
Clarion never trailed in the contest, with Kearney scoring a three-pointer on the game's opening possession and adding another two trips down the floor later. That put the Golden Eagles ahead 8-4 just 90 seconds into the action and the team never looked back from there. Before long the lead was approaching double-digits, as Gavin Cote hit a three-pointer at the 14:04 mark to extend the advantage to 21-12, and Jahmari Hamilton-Brown scored on a putback to make it a 14-point game just a few minutes later.
 
That capped an 11-0 run for the Golden Eagles in the first half, though Kutztown countered with a 12-0 run of their own to pull within two points. Easter stopped the bleeding with a three, taking a kickout from Kelly and putting it away to make it 29-25, and the sophomore guard added another with less than a minute to go in the half to put his team ahead 39-35.
 
Things started to stretch out even further in the second half. Kelly put the lead back into double-digits at the 16:42 mark, taking a pass from Thomas and laying it in to make it 48-38, and he polished off an and-one with 11:02 to go to extend the lead to 15 points. Thomas put the team ahead by 20 for the first time with 8:30 to go, taking a pass from Cote and laying it in to make it 74-54, and from there the runaway was on. Thomas put the final nail in the coffin at the 2:37 mark, throwing down an alley-oop pass from Kelly on the fast break to make it 86-64.
  Read Full Article