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GOLDEN EAGLES CLINCH PSAC-WEST TITLE

EDINBORO – Behind a career-high 25 points from Lee Church, Clarion’s men’s basketball team clinched its first PSAC-West title since 2000 with a 69-61 win at Edinboro Wednesday night.

The Golden Eagles (19-7 overall, 8-3 PSAC-West) play Saturday at IUP to close out the regular season before hosting an as yet to be determined opponent at Tippin Gym Tuesday in the opening round of the PSAC playoffs. Game time will be 8 p.m. and will follow the Clarion women’s team first-round PSAC Playoff game with Shippensburg, which starts at 6 p.m.

The title is the third for Clarion under 17^th year head coach with all three titles coming in the past nine season (1997, 2000, 2005).

It was Clarion’s first regular-season win at Edinboro since Feb. 20, 1991, although the Golden Eagles beat the Fighting Scots in the opening round of the PSAC Playoffs at McComb Fieldhouse in 2003.

Clarion, ranked 10^th in the latest NCAA Division II East Region poll, led 33-31 at halftime.

But Edinboro (20-6, 7-4) ranked sixth in the East Region, took a 43-38 lead 4:30 into the second half.

The Golden Eagles responded with a 16-5 run behind scoring from Lee Church (7 points), Ryan Wells (4 points), Frank Torbert (3 points) and Terrance Vaughns (2 points) to take a 51-48 lead with 8:51 to play.

Edinboro then got the lead down to 54-52 before five straight points from Church pushed it out to a 7-point advantage (59-52) with 5:35 left.

The Scots answered with a five-point run to close within two points at 59-57 with 3:34 to play, but Clarion responded with a free throw by Ryan Wells and then a traditional three-point play from Bobby Franklin with 1:24 left to take a 63-57 lead.

Church then stole the ball from Edinboro’s Jakim Donaldson with 1:04 to play, and Chris Buchanan’s subsequent layup with 1:00 left put Clarion head by eight points --- 65-57.

Clarion then hit four of six free throws in the final 43 seconds to seal the win.

Wells had a double-double for the Golden Eagles with 14 points and 12 rebounds, while Terrance Vaughns added nine points.

Five Edinboro players scored in double digits lead by 12 points and 15 rebounds from Donaldson. Torry Mitchell, Chris Ravello and Devon Knight each had 11 tallies and Rob Sims had 10.

GOLDEN EAGLE NOTES – Clarion won the PSAC title in 2001 by beating Bloomsburg and West Chester in Edinboro … The Golden Eagles started PSAC-West play 1-2 but have won 7 of their past 8 conference games … Clarion swept the regular-season series from Edinboro for the first since 1985 … This is the seventh time in the past nine years Clarion has won at least 19 games, and the Golden Eagles are averaging 18.8 wins per season during that stretch … Clarion has qualified for the PSAC playoffs in all nine of those years, which is the longest active streak in the PSAC-West and tied for the fourth longest streak in PSAC history … Clarion last hosted a PSAC Playoff game Feb. 29, 2000, losing to Slippery Rock 73-54.