Clarion University’s men’s basketball team will open up the 2003 post-season with a first-round PSAC contest at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Edinboro’s McComb Fieldhouse against the Fighting Scots.

 The game can be heard on WCCR-FM (92.7) in Clarion and on the internet at www.redzonemedia.com with Rich Herman and Dave Katis providing the play by play and color commentary.

"We are excited to be in the playoffs," Clarion head coach Ron Righter said. "That was our goal at the start of the season. Considering we lost three 1,000-point career scorers from last year’s team, to have 18 wins so far is tremendous. Our goal is to win the conference championship, but we have to take it one game at a time. There are no easy games at this point in the season. Edinboro is a very good team. We split the season series with them this year, and both games were hard-fought contests."

Third-seeded Clarion (18-9 overall, 7-5 PSAC-West) and second-seeded Edinboro (17-10, 8-4) each held serve at home this season with Clarion winning 74-49 Feb. 5 and Edinboro getting a 57-43 win Feb. 26.

In the game at Clarion, the Golden Eagles had four players in double figures led by Dereck Rankin’s 15 points. Rollie Smith added 13 points, 7 assists and 8 rebounds, Terrance Vaughns had 12 points and Justin Collins had 10. Edinboro, which went just over 10 minutes in the game without a basket, shot 35.6 percent for the game and was led by Jakim Donaldson (10 points, 10 rebounds).

At Edinboro three weeks later, the tables were turned with Clarion having the off shooting night hitting 25.4 percent of its shots while going an stretch of eight minutes without scoring. Vaughns led Clarion with 10 points. Rob Green had 18 points for Edinboro and Donaldson had 11 points and 14 rebounds.

Clarion enters the playoffs on a four-game losing streak, but three of the four losses have come by a combined total of nine points including a 98-96 set back at Shippensburg Saturday. Edinboro enters the game having split its last four games, and the Fighting Scots are coming off a 73-59 loss at home to California Saturday.

The Eagles are led by Smith (19.5 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 3.7 apg, 1.7 spg), Rankin (12.0 ppg, 3.0 apg, 3.0 rpg), Vaughns (10.3 ppg, 4.7 rpg), Chris Kelley (9.8 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 2.1 spg) and Shamar Green (9.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg).

Edinboro, which lost point guard Rob Simms (17.0 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 4.7 apg) to a broken arm four games ago, is paced by Jakim Donaldson (13.0 ppg, 10.8 rpg), Duke Gartrell (10.6 ppg) and Rob Green (10.3 ppg).

Clarion will be trying to break a 13-game losing streak to Edinboro at McComb Fieldhouse. Clarion’s last win over the Scots at Edinboro was a 100-72 victory Feb. 20, 1991. The Golden Eagles did get two of the biggest wins in school history on the McComb Fieldhouse hardwood in the 2001 season when they beat Bloomsburg in the PSAC semifinals and West Chester in the PSAC Championship Game to win their first PSAC Title.

GOLDEN EAGLE NOTES: Clarion and Edinboro last met in the PSAC playoffs in 1998 with Edinboro winning 77-67 at Edinboro ... Clarion won the PSAC title in 2001 ... The Golden Eagles have the longest active playoff streak in the PSAC-West with seven consecutive appearances ... The winner of Tuesday’s game will play the winner of the Mansfield at Millersville game Saturday at the highest remaining seed from the PSAC-West ... The other two games Tuesday are Lock Haven at California and Kutztown at West Chester ... The semifinal winners will meet Sunday for the PSAC Title at the same site as Saturday’s games.