CALIFORNIA (Jan. 25) – The California University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team matched its win total from last season on Wednesday night with an 84-78 victory against Clarion at the Convocation Center in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) West play.
With the win, the Vulcans improve to 7-13 overall after winning four of their last six games. Cal U also now stands at 4-10 in league action. Last year, the Vulcans posted a 7-21 record with a 4-18 mark in conference play. Meanwhile, the Golden Eagles have now lost 10-straight games to fall to 5-14 this season with a 3-11 record in league action.
Junior
Daniel Sapp (Streetsboro, Ohio/Streetsboro) paced four players in double-digits with a career-high 23 points. He shot 7-of-11 from the floor and made 7-of-10 from the free-throw line while playing 36 minutes. Sapp also posted six rebounds against the Golden Eagles.
Classmate
Luka Andjusic (Belgrade, Serbia/Borislav Petrov Braca) tallied 19 points behind seven-of-eight from the charity stripe after going just 2-of-11 from beyond the arc. He also finished with seven rebounds and six assists in a team-high 38 minutes. Fellow junior
Cordell Smith (Cleveland, Ohio/Shaw) posted 14 points and three steals, while forward
Tony Richardson (Sterling, Va./Dominion) registered a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds in just 22 minutes.
Cal U opened the game on a 14-0 run and held a 17-2 lead before Clarion made its first field goal of the game with 14:33 left in the first half. The Golden Eagles then mounted a 17-5 run to cut the deficit to 22-19 at the 5:58-mark, as the Vulcans shot just 2-of-14 from the floor during that span. Clarion eventually scored six-straight points to take its first lead of the game at 25-24 with 3:03 remaining before halftime. The teams traded points for the remainder of the first half before the Golden Eagles took a 32-31 lead at the break.
The Vulcans started the second half on a 14-1 rally to take a 45-33 lead on a three-pointer by Andjusic with 14:27 left to play. Cal U eventually led by as many as 14 points, 57-53, in the second half when Sapp made a trey at the 8:12-mark. The Golden Eagles responded with a 13-5 run over nearly four minutes to cut the deficit to 62-56 before Andjusic made four free-throws to give the Vulcans a double-digit lead at 66-56 with 3:36 remaining. Clarion managed to trim the deficit to eight points with just over 90 seconds left to play before Cal U sealed the win by making seven-of-eight free-throws.
Cal U shot 60 percent in the second half to finish the game with a .453 field-goal percentage (24-of-53). The Vulcans set a season-high with 29 free-throws made after converting 72.5 percent (29-of-40) from the charity stripe. In comparison, the Golden Eagles shot at a 35.4 clip (23-of-65) from the floor and 83.3 percent (25-of-30) from the free-throw line. Clarion finished with a 42-38 rebounding advantage and scored 25 second-chance points, while Cal U finished with 20 points off turnovers.
Junior Jamani Pierce led the Golden Eagles with 19 points after going 10-of-12 from the free-throw line and added nine rebounds off the bench. Senior Justin Grant scored 12 points behind three-of-five from long range and also collected nine rebounds and two steals in the loss.
The Vulcans return to action on Saturday, Jan. 28, when they host Edinboro at the Convocation Center for a 5 p.m. tipoff.
