ERIE, Pa. --- A standout first half gave way to a gutsy finish in the second as the Golden Eagles men's basketball team upset nationally-ranked Gannon on the road, with Clarion beating the 21^st-ranked Golden Knights 83-79 at the Highmark Events Center on Wednesday.
 
The Golden Eagles started out on fire against the Golden Knights, taking a double-digit advantage in the first half and leading by nine points at the halftime break. Their lead slowly dwindled as the game went on, with Gannon chipping away and eventually going ahead with just over five minutes to play.
 
With both teams trading buckets down the stretch, point guard Trey Nelson delivered the late-game heroics that locked up the Golden Eagles' win. After Josiah Dow blocked a Pace Prosser shot on the defensive end, Nelson drove the lane with 29 seconds to play made a contested layup to put the Golden Eagles up 80-77. With time winding down Clarion got a defensive stop on a missed three-pointer by Prosser, with the ball deflecting out of bounds to give the Golden Eagles possession. Nelson was fouled on the inbounds play and made both free throws, giving Clarion a five-point edge with under 10 seconds to play.
 
The late-game drama was far from over, though. Tasman Goodrick rushed down the floor and scored with five seconds to go, cutting the Golden Eagles' lead to 82-79, and Kendon Peebles was fouled on the inbounds to send the latter to the free throw line. Peebles missed the first free throw but buried the second, clinching the Clarion win with 2.4 seconds left to go.
 
Nelson was spectacular in the second half, and finished Wednesday's game with a team-high 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting. He also recorded four steals, three assists and three rebounds. Gavin Cote rebounded with a 14-point effort while Jeremy Thomas II had 13 points and tied the team-high with seven rebounds. Peebles came off the bench for 11 points in 16 minutes.
 
Clarion stunned the Golden Knights with a 24-9 run to start the game, holding the prolific Gannon offense to single digits for nearly nine minutes of play. That included a four-minute stretch where the Golden Eagles scored 15 unanswered points, starting with a bucket by Thomas and a three-pointer by Josiah Dow, who scored 10 points. Peebles and Dow chucked in two more treys to make it 20-9, and Thomas concluded the run with a steal and a fast break bucket at the 11:24 mark.
 
The lead went as high as 16 points in the first half after Dow made his third three-pointer of the game, putting Clarion ahead 33-17. The Golden Knights responded and got it to single-digits before the end of the half, with Prosser matching Nelson's jumper in the last 10 seconds to make it 44-35. Clarion's lead was still double-digits with seven minutes gone in the second half, until Ernest Shelton made a three-pointer to make it 59-51. Layne Sarver scored with under eight to play to even the score at 64, but Clarion outscored the Golden Knights 19-15 down the stretch.
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