ERIE, Pa. --- The Golden Eagle men's basketball team traded long runs with Mercyhurst in the first half of the game, but Clarion was unable to make up an early deficit in falling 74-64 to the Lakers on Monday night.
 
The Lakers came on strong in the early portion of the game, shooting 13-of-27 (.481) from the field in the first half. Much of that damage came from Jeff Planutis, who notched 16 of his 24 points in the first 20 minutes of play. Conversely, Mercyhurst did a good job limiting the Golden Eagles in their scoring efforts, keeping them to just 20 points at the break.
 
Things stabilized a bit in the second half as the Golden Eagles didn't let the Lakers run away as they had in the first, and Clarion managed to make up some ground on their opponents. Clarion outscored Mercyhurst 44-42 in the second half and got the deficit down to single digits before falling.
 
Cam Kearney scored a team-high 16 points, doing most of his damage at the free throw line by going 10-of-13 from the charity stripe. Steve Kelly logged 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting while Jeremy Thomas II added 14 points. Kearney also had team-highs with eight rebounds and four assists.
 
Both sides traded buckets early in the game, with Steve Kelly draining a three-pointer to briefly put his team ahead, and Cam Kearney tying the score at 5-5 with a pair of free throws. Planutis responded with his first make of the game on ensuing offensive possession, draining a three-pointer, and that kicked off a big run for the Lakers. Mercyhurst rattled off a 21-0 run over more than nine minutes of game time, with Clarion finally breaking their drought on a putback by Jaylen Shippen with 8:48 remaining in the half.
 
From there, things were lopsided in favor of the Golden Eagles. Clarion embarked on a 15-6 run to close out the first half, holding the Lakers to just two field goals on their final 11 attempts of the half. Jahmari Hamilton-Brown hit a trey off a pass from Shippen at the 5:41 mark to cut it to 29-12, and Kelly drove for a layup at the 2:49 mark to make it a 14-point game. Cam Kearney and Jeremy Thomas II made four straight free throws in the final minute to set the halftime deficit at 32-20.
 
Mercyhurst got back to it early in the second half, keeping their lead to double-digits and at one point expanding it to 54-33 with 11:48 left to go in regulation. Clarion recovered from that and continued to chip away at the Laker lead, outscoring them 25-15 over the next eight minutes to pull back within 11 points. Cam Kearney closed out the run with a layup at the 3:03 mark, scoring after Jeremy Thomas II stole the ball from Sean Fullerton to put his team in transition.
 
Hamilton-Brown made it 71-61 with just over a minute to go, taking a pass from Kearney and scoring with 65 seconds to play, and Thomas brought it to eight points off another assist from Kearney on the next offensive possession. Clarion got no closer, though, as the Lakers put the finishing touches on the win.