When most basketball teams lose three 1,000-point career scorers from the previous season they go into a rebuilding mode. Not the Clarion University men’s basketball program. Clarion lost three 1,000-point scorers from the 2001-02 team but reloaded in 2002-03 going 19-10 overall and 7-5 in the PSAC-West before advancing to the PSAC semifinals.

"I am really proud of this team," Clarion’s 15^th-year head coach Ron Righter said. "We exceeded every goal we set at the start of the season, and in fact had to re-evaluate them midway through the season and set new ones."

The 19 wins marked the 11^th time in Righter’s 15 years at Clarion that the Golden Eagles have won at least 15 games, and with the 19 wins Clarion has averaged 19.1 wins per season over the last seven years. Over that seven-year period, the Golden Eagles have also qualified for the PSAC playoffs in each of those season which is the longest active mark in the PSAC-West and tied for the longest active playoff run in the PSAC. In the last seven years, the Golden Eagles have gone a combined 134-60 (69.1 percent) overall and 55-29 (65.5 percent) in the PSAC-West. The Golden Eagles were PSAC Champions in 2001 and PSAC-West champs in 2000 and 1997.

"Our record over the last seven years is something to be proud about," Righter said. "It is a testament to a lot of things including solid players and some luck. We have been very fortunate to have had some quality players come through here, and hopefully that continues."

While Clarion lost three 1,000-point career scorers from last season, the Golden Eagles did have a strong nucleus of senior guards returning for this season led by Rollie Smith (Cleveland, Ohio/St. Joseph’s), Dereck Rankin (Brooklyn, N.Y./John Jay) and Chris Kelley (Roselle, N.J./Abraham Clark). Also returning were junior center Ben Meese (Berlin/Berlin Brothers), senior forward Stephen Nesmith (Pittsburgh/Sewickley Academy) and red-shirt freshman guard Vince Moley.

Joining the returning players were a strong group of freshmen in guards Justin Collins (Lansdale/North Penn), Terrance Vaughns (Uniontown/Uniontown) and Frank Torbert (Imperial/West Allegheny) and forwards Shamar Green (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xaverian) and Marko Joksimovic (Aliquippa/Aliquippa).

Clarion opened the 2002-03 season in grand fashion sweeping to victory in the Subway/KFC Classic. Clarion opened the tournament with an 82-68 win over Point Park in the process giving its fans a glimpse of what would become a strong second half team. Clarion trailed 37-34 at halftime but rallied to outscore the Pioneers 48-31 in the second half. It was the first of seven games Clarion won when trailing at halftime, and the Golden Eagles also added two wins when tied at the break. Four Clarion players scored in double figures in the game led by 27 points from Smith.

In the championship game, Clarion got 21 points from Green and 18 from Smith to defeat Winston-Salem 63-46. Smith was named the tournament’s MVP, while Vaughns and Green both made the All-Tournament team.

Clarion followed up the tournament title with wins over Felician (58-53) and Davis & Elkins (75-51) before suffering its first two loses of the season to West Chester (71-62) and Millersville (75-73). In the Millersville game, Smith netted 27 points putting him over the 1,000 career-point total as Clarion rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit only to lose on two free throws with three seconds left.

The Golden Eagles rebounded very well from the heartbreaking loss to Millersville rolling off 10 wins in their next 11 games to improve their record to 14-3. The only loss was an 84-79 overtime loss at Cheyney in a game in which the Wolves shot 33 free throws to Clarion’s 13..

The streak started with a 68-51 win at Bloomfield and included wins over East Stroudsburg (73-48), Bloomsburg (74-60), Davis & Elkins (80-37) and Mansfield (87-82) before the loss at Cheyney. Smith continued his hot play scoring over 20 points in three of the five wins including 28 against Mansfield. Kelley also was playing well scoring at least 15 points three times in five games while adding 10 or more rebounds twice.

Following the loss to Cheyney, Clarion rebounded to topple Kutztown (64-61) in the final tune-up before PSAC-West play started.

PSAC-West play finally got underway Jan. 15 at California’s Hammer Hall against the preseason pick to win the PSAC-West Cal. The Golden Eagles immediately sent notice to the PSAC-West that they were going to be a team to contend with defeating the favored Vulcans 79-72 behind 27 points from Smith, 11 points and seven rebounds from Kelley, 13 points from Rankin and 10 points from Vaughns.

Heading back into non-conference action the next game against Pitt-Johnstown, Clarion broke open a one-point game (48-47) with 14 minutes to play by outscoring the Mountain Cats 42-25 the remainder of the game. Smith was a big part of the run scoring 26 of his career-high 38 points in the game’s final 13:42.

Wins over Slippery Rock (65-54) and defending PSAC and East Regional champion IUP (76-72) followed to put the Eagles at 14-3 on Jan. 25. Following the win over Slippery Rock, Clarion moved into the NCAA East Region ranking for the first time this season at No. 9, while the win over IUP rocketed the Golden Eagles to No. 3 in the East Region.

Clarion hit a rough patch losing two of its next three games (Pitt-Bradford 50-57, Lock Haven 63-60 and Shippensburg 66-67) with the Shippensburg loss coming on a half-court shot by the Red Raiders at the horn.

The Golden Eagles rebounded with wins over Edinboro (74-49), California (63-61) and IUP (63-58) with the win over IUP clinching a PSAC playoff berth for Clarion.

Despite losing four straight games to end the regular season, Clarion entered the PSAC playoffs at Edinboro and did something it hadn’t done since 1991 beating the Fighting Scots on their home court 76-73.

Clarion started the game on a 9-0 run and maintained that lead throughout the first half leading 36-27 at halftime. In the second half, Edinboro made a run cutting the Golden Eagle lead to 45-43 midway through the half, but Torbert, who have seen limited action throughout the season, came up with four consecutive points to stop the Edinboro run. Smith led Clarion with 24 points, Rankin added 20 and Kelley 15 and seven rebounds.

Moving onto the PSAC semifinals, Clarion faced Millersville at California’s Hammer Hall, and Clarion could never get anything going falling 79-57 to the eventual PSAC champions. Vaughns led Clarion with 13 points, while Smith had 12.

Rollie Smith finished his sensational Golden Eagle career by going over the 1,000 point career mark this season. Smith finished his career with 1,468 points, the sixth most in school history, and 455 assists, fourth most in school history while adding 154 steals, and 390 rebounds. He is just the third player in school history to score 1,000 points and dish out 400 assists. His 562 points in 2002-03 were the 11^th most in a single season in school history, and he was named first-team PSAC-West this season. He was also the PSAC-West Rookie of the Year in 1999-00 after averaging 9.0 ppg and 3.7 apg. In his four years at Clarion, he helped the Golden Eagles to an overall record of 73-38 and a PSAC-West mark of 31-17. Clarion won the PSAC-West title once (2000) and the PSAC title once (2001) with Smith at the point, and he was named the PSAC Tournament MVP in 2001 after hitting the game tying shot in the title game against West Chester with six seconds remaining and then scoring seven points in overtime to lead the Eagles to the title. This season he finished third in the PSAC in scoring at 19.4 ppg, fourth in the PSAC in steals (1.86 spg) and 12^th in the PSAC in assists (3.59 apg) while adding 4.6 rpg. He was named PSAC-West Player of the Week three times during the season. In addition to Smith, the Golden Eagles also will be saying goodbye to Rankin, Kelley, Meese and Nesmith.

Playing the last two years at Clarion, Rankin scored 477 career points and dished out 146 career assists. He came into his own this season averaging 12.2 ppg, 3.0 apg and 3.1 rpg while being named second-team all-conference

Kelley played two seasons for the Golden Eagles (2000 & 2003) and scored 595 points while grabbing 285 rebounds. This year he averaged 9.9 ppg and a team-high 8.1 rpg which placed him eighth in the PSAC.

Meese also played two season for Clarion (2000 & 2003) and scored 55 career points and had 65 career rebounds. This season he averaged 1.7 ppg and 1.8 rpg while leading the team with 24 blocked shots.

Nesmith played four season for the Golden Eagles and scored 169 career points while grabbing 237 career rebounds. More of a defensive specialist, Nesmith drew numerous key charges throughout his career. This season playing in only 11 games, Nesmith averaged 6.0 ppg and 4.4 rpg.

While Clarion will miss the five players it is losing, the Golden Eagles have a strong nucleus back for next year led by Vaughns and Green.

Vaughns had an outstanding freshman season scoring 301 points (10.4 ppg), dishing out 66 assists (2.3 apg), grabbing 92 rebounds (4.8 rpg) and coming up with 50 steals (1.7 spg). He also finished second in the PSAC in free-throw percentage hitting 89.9 percent of his charity shots (62 of 69) and second in the PSAC in three-point shooting percentage hitting 47.7 percent (61 of 128) of his three-pointers. His 47.7 percent shooting from beyond the three-point mark broke Kwame Morton’s school record of 47.4 percent set in 1990-91. Three times during the season, Vaughns was named PSAC-West Rookie of the Week.

Green also had a very solid rookie campaign for the Golden Eagles averaging 8.9 ppg and 5.6 rpg. He scored a season-high 21 points vs. Winston-Salem St. while also adding 20 tallies against Pitt-Johnstown. He grabbed a season-high 13 rebounds against Davis & Elkins, while adding 12 against Lock Haven. He was also named PSAC-West Rookie of Week three times during the season.

Four other freshmen who had solid seasons for the Golden Eagles were Justin Collins (3.3 ppg, 1.2 rpg), Marko Joksimovic (1.3 ppg, 1.3 rpg), Vince Moley (1.1 ppg) and Frank Torbert (0.7 ppg).

"We have a solid group of players back next season," Righter said. "Hopefully we will be able to bring in a solid recruiting class to go with them and with a few breaks make it back to the PSAC playoffs."