CALIFORNIA (Feb. 29) – The No. 8 California (PA) men's basketball team completed a regular-season sweep of IUP on Wednesday night for the first time in over 15 years with a 75-68 win at the Convocation Center in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) West action.
RECORDS/SERIES
• The Vulcans improve to 24-3 this season behind an 18-3 record in league play.
• The Crimson Hawks suffer a third-straight loss to fall to 16-11 overall with a 13-8 mark in conference action.
• Cal earned its first home win against IUP since the 2011-12 campaign while sweeping the Crimson Hawks for the first time since the 2007-08 campaign.
• The Vulcans remain one-game back of first place in the PSAC West standings with one contest left in the regular season.
STATS
• Sophomore
KJ McClurg led the team with 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting and added five rebounds while playing all 40 minutes.
• He also became the third player in the last four seasons, and the 10th overall in program history, to score at least 600 points in a season.
• Sophomore
Donald Whitehead, Jr. added 18 points on 8-of-15 from the floor and collected three rebounds and three assists on Wednesday.
• Senior
Jermaine Hall, Jr. registered a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds, along with three assists, against IUP.
• Junior
Keith Palek III posted 11 points, three rebounds and two steals in 24 minutes off the bench.
• Redshirt senior
Zyan Collins tallied six rebounds, four assists, one block and four steals in the victory.
GAME ACTION
• The Crimson Hawks posted a 12-2 run early in the first half to take a 12-7 lead at the 16:29-mark.
• Cal countered with a 13-2 rally with McClurg and Palek accounting for all 13 points to claim a 20-14 advantage with 12:06 left before halftime.
• The Vulcans scored 10-unanswered points to stretch the lead to a 34-24 margin with 3:45 remaining in the first half.
• Cal later took a 39-33 lead at the break despite going just 2-of-13 from beyond the arc in the first half.
• IUP worked the deficit to three points in the opening 90 second of the second half before Cal answered with an 11-4 run to take a 55-45 lead at the 14:50-mark.
• The Crimson Hawks later again trailed by three points with 7:48 left to play on Wednesday.
• Cal sealed the victory with a 7-2 rally to stretch the lead to 72-64 with 4:15 remaining.
• IUP was limited to just a pair of field goals and scored only eight points over the final nine minutes.
• The Vulcans finished the game with a .420 field-goal percentage (29-of-69).
• Cal committed just six turnovers in the victory and scored 18 points off turnovers.
• IUP junior Garvine Clarke scored a game-high 25 points while shooting 11-of-30 from the floor, plus added eight rebounds and five assists.
NEXT
• The Vulcans travel to face Edinboro on Saturday, March 2, in PSAC West play to close out the regular season at 3 p.m.
