Men's Basketball Falls Short to Clarion

BLOOMSBURG--The Bloomsburg University men's basketball team had four players in double figures but fell short to Clarion by a score of 80-71.

In the first half the Huskies and Golden Eagles traded leads with the Huskies leading 11-10 with 12:15 to play in the half on a layup from Drew Jerry (Philadelphia/Olney). Clarion regained the lead a minute later on a three-pointer, part of a 13-0 run to go in front 23-13. The Huskies closed the gap to four points, 34-30, with 1:06 left to go in the first, after a 9-0 run that included a three-pointer from Ronnie Benson (Harleysville/Souderton).

Trailing by seven at halftime, the Huskies started with a 7-2 run to get within a bucket, 39-37. Dan Hoover scored four of the points on layups. Clarion rallied and used a 7-0 run to go back up by nine, 48-39, with 16:29 to play. The Huskies then went on a tear outscoring Clarion 14-4 over the next four minutes to grab a 53-52 lead with 11:38 to go in the game. Michael Varanavage (Philadelphia/Archbishop Wood) scored eight points and Marko Vucajnk (Zalec, Slovenia) had two dunks in the rally for Bloomsburg.

Clarion, though, responded and went back in front by as many as six points before the Huskies came back and trimmed the lead back to three, 71-68, on another three-pointer from Benson. That would be as close as the Huskies would get though as Josh Yanke hit a long three-pointer and the Golden Eagles hit three of four from the foul line in the final 45seconds to seal the win.

Bloomsburg, 3-10, got 23 points from Ruben Britt (Voorhees, NJ/Eastern Regional), 11 from Benson, and 10 each from Varanavage and Jesse Betar (Altoona/Altoona). Clarion, 9-3, got 22 points from Yanke, while Shameel Carty scored 18 and Mike Sherry added 14.

The Huskies will host Cheyney on Wednesday in the start of PSAC Eastern Divisional play starting at 7:30 p.m.