ERIE, Pa. --- The Golden Eagles men's basketball team nearly erased a 14-point halftime deficit on the road, pulling even before ultimately falling by double-digits to Gannon at the Highmark Events Center.
 
Clarion fell behind by a large deficit early in the game but chipped away in a big way early in the second half, working back from a 36-22 gap at the halftime break to tie the score with less than nine minutes remaining. Most of the damage came during an 11-0 run midway through the period, when the Golden Eagles closed ground on a 56-45 deficit. Gerald Jarmon stroked a three-pointer at the 10:15 mark to get the deficit to single digits, and Justice Easter banged home a trey on the subsequent possession to make it 56-51.
 
Jarmon added another long-range shot at the 9:14 mark to make it 56-54, and Fray Nguimbi tied it up with 8:39 left after taking a pass from Kearney and laying it in. Gannon re-took the lead but it stayed a one-possession ballgame until there was 6:11 left to go, when Zach Kent made a midrange jumper to make it 63-58. That was part of a 14-4 Gannon run that essentially locked up the result.
 
Easter was one of the stars of the night for Clarion, scoring a career- and game-high 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field, including a 5-of-7 night from three-point range. Easter also pulled down the game-high in rebounds with eight boards, and contributed three assists and two steals. Kearney and Nguimbi were just behind him in scoring with 16 points apiece, with Kearney added six boards and Nguimbi four.
 
The first half was generally a forgettable one for the Golden Eagles, as Gannon erased an early Clarion lead and took a double-digit advantage of their own. Kearney put the Golden Eagles ahead 12-6 with a jumper at the 14:06 mark, but the Golden Knights scored 14 of the next 16 points to go ahead 20-14. Remarkably, it was still just a two-possession ball game with 2:01 left to go in the half, as Kearney made a jumper off a feed from Steve Kelly to cut it to 28-22. Gannon closed the half on an 8-0 run to stretch the lead to 14 points, taking a 36-22 edge at the break.
 
 
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