Edinboro, Pa. – A balanced offensive attack lifted the Edinboro men's basketball to an 89-77 win over visiting Clarion Saturday afternoon inside McComb Fieldhouse.
Clarion trimmed the Edinboro lead to 76-74 with a Steve Kelly layup with 2:51 left in the game.
JJ Eubank answered with a pull up jumper sparking a 9-0 run with three points from
Jack Gallagher and four from
Daunte Wilcott to make it 85-74. Cam Kearney scored an old-school 3-point play to trim the lead 85-76 with 24 seconds left. Eubank and Wilcott went a combined 4-of-4 from the line in the closing seconds to set the final.
The Scots led 73-62 after a
Ryan Ladjevich triple at the 7:29 mark of the second half. The Golden Eagles responded with a 12-3 run trimming the lead to 76-74 on the Kelly layup.
Edinboro came out of the gate fast scoring the first eight points of the game on 3-pointers from Eubank and Gallagher as well as a
Madior Seye jumper. The Scots carried that momentum on extending the lead to 14-3 on a Wilcott layup at the 14:23 mark of the first.
The Golden Eagles scored four straight to trim the advantage to 14-7, but the Scots answered with an 11-5 spurt of their own keyed by four points from
Ian McNeill to extend the lead to 25-12 with 7:45 to go in the first. The lead would shrink to 34-30 Scots with 3:08 on the clock, but the Edinboro defense held Clarion off the board as part of a 10-0 run to make it 44-30 Scots at the half.
Edinboro pushed their lead to it's largest, 53-36 on a Gallagher bucket with 15:28 to play in the game. Clarion chipped away before the Scots pulled away late in the second half.
Gallagher paced the Edinboro offense with 18 points to go with six rebounds and five assists. Eubank tallied 17 points as well as four helpers and three rebounds. Seye notched 16 points and eight boards. Ladjevich was 3-for-3 from distance to finish with 11 points while
Bernie Blunt tallied 10 points and four rebounds.
The Scots return to action on Wednesday when they welcome Gannon to McComb Fieldhouse for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.
