CLARION, Pa. --- The Golden Eagles women's basketball team wrapped up the regular season at home on Friday night, falling 68-55 to IUP in Tippin Gymnasium in the finale. Clarion, the sixth seed in the PSAC West, will now wait for the results of Saturday's conference games to determine their first round opponent in the conference tournament.
 
The game remained tight well into the third quarter, with the teams separated by just two possessions well into the third quarter of play. In fact, the Golden Eagles and Crimson Hawks were dead even in the first quarter, tying at 14-14 through 10 minutes. Clarion rallied from an 8-4 deficit to score 10 of the next 14 points, including a three-pointer from Malayziah Etheredge at the 1:37 mark and an old-fashioned three-point play from DayLynn Thornton.
 
IUP took the lead and began to extend the advantage, going up by as many as nine points in the second quarter. Siara Conley scored early in the third quarter to cut it to 33-27, and she lated sparked a fast break bucket from Autumn Taylor by stealing the ball from Nyshae' Weaver and kicking it ahead to make it 37-31. Thornton made a pair of free throws with 5:05 to go in the third to make it 37-33, but the Crimson Hawks outscored Clarion 12-3 down the stretch in that period to lead by a baker's dozen.
 
That advantage held for the remainder of regulation, though Etheredge knocked down a couple of buckets in her final game in Tippin Gym to keep her team around. She drove and scored two minutes into the quarter, and two possessions later drained a trey from the corner to make it 57-43. She sank a pair of three-pointers down the stretch to close out the scoring, including a final shot with under two to play.
 
Etheredge tied for the game high with 19 points on 7-of-16 shooting, including a 5-of-8 mark from three-point range. Conley closed out the home portion of her career with 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting, while Madison Palek had four points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Palek also had three blocked shots.
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