CLARION, Pa. --- A defensive struggle in the first half gave way to more offense in the second, but the Golden Eagle men's basketball team was unable to crack the Seton Hill back end in falling 66-56 to the Griffins in Tippin Gymnasium on Monday.
 
Seton Hill's defense stymied Clarion throughout the game, with the Golden Eagles shooting just 17-of-61 (.279) from the field through 40 minutes. However, tight defense and good rebounding by Clarion kept them in in the contest, with the Golden Eagles trailing by just seven points with under two minutes remaining. Gerald Jarmon hit a step-back jumper for three at the 1:43 mark to cut the deficit to 60-53, but the Griffins broke Clarion's press and Samuel Tabe laid it in on the ensuing possession to keep it a three-score game.
 
It seemed again that the Golden Eagles had chipped away at the Griffins' momentum, when Jihad Simpson took a kickout from Steve Kelly and drained a three-pointer from the corner to make it 64-56. Ryan Meis missed a pair of free throws after Kelly was forced to foul him on the inbounds, but Seton Hill got a key stop with 40 seconds left, and Tabe went to the free throw line after drawing contact from Justice Easter. He sank both of his shots from the charity stripe to push the lead back to double-digits and essentially close out the contest.
 
Though the Griffins were more efficient on offense than Clarion, they were not able to build too great an advantage thanks to the Golden Eagles' own strong defense. It remained essentially a two-possession ballgame early in the first half until the last few minutes, when Seton Hill strung together a few possessions to build the lead. Meis scored a transition bucket in the paint after stealing the ball from Kelly to make it 24-17, and Tabe got a second-chance point with 1:31 left in the half to make it 28-19. Neither team managed a score in the last 91 seconds of the first half, keeping it a manageable deficit for the Golden Eagles to attack.
 
Jarmon scored a team-high 20 points, with most of his tallies coming late in the game during the comeback effort. Easter finished with 11 points, including 4-of-11 from the field, and a team-high seven rebounds. Kelly, Jayson Harris and Cam Kearney each pulled down six rebounds.
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