CALIFORNIA, Pa. - The Gannon men's basketball team was unable to convert a pair of potential game-tying three-pointers during the final eight seconds before dropping a 62-59 decision at California (Pa.) Wednesday night in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Western Division action.
The loss dropped Gannon out of a four-way tie for first place in the PSAC West, one game behind Indiana (Pa.) and Mercyhurst with seven contests remaining. IUP won at Pitt-Johnstown 91-68 and Mercyhurst rallied for a 57-47 win at Seton Hill. The Golden Knights are now tied with Slippery Rock for third place. The Rock was upset at Clarion by an 87-86 count in overtime.
Wednesday's Gannon-Cal affair followed a familiar script to past match-ups between the two teams on the Vulcans' home floor. The final result was the fifth decided by one possession during the last seven games played at Cal. In the process, the Vulcans improved to 8-2 all-time against the Golden Knights at home.
Gannon forged the 14th tie of the game on
Adam Blazek's (Erie, Pa./Cathedral Prep) three-pointer that created a 53-53 deadlock with 3:50 remaining. California (Pa.) responded with a go-ahead triple from Arman Marks 22 seconds later and increased the advantage to 58-53 with a Marks' jumper at the 2:40 mark.
Brandon Emmitt (Akron, Ohio/Akron Garfield) gave Gannon life again with his only points of the evening, hitting a three-pointer to draw the Golden Knights within 58-56 with 91 ticks remaining. However, the following script seemed like deja vu as Marks drilled a three-pointer on Cal's next possession and Jake Jacubec added a free throw to give the Vulcans a 62-56 edge with 37 seconds left.
Not surprising from a game that featured 14 ties and eight lead changes, the contest was far from over.
Raphell Thomas-Edwards (Leicester, England/The Gateway School) knocked down his third three-pointer of the season to cut the deficit to 62-59 with 20 seconds to play.
It was only fitting for the final 16-second time frame to be a frantic one. With a chance to ice the victory, Marks missed the front end of a one-and-one. Gannon's ensuing three-pointer with eight seconds left was off the mark, but the Golden Knights were fouled on the rebound. Despite missing the front end of its own one-and-one, Gannon had one last chance to tie the game after an offensive rebound. But another potential game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer didn't fall as Cal celebrated another tight home win.
Neither team was able to grab a lead larger than six points. Gannon led for the majority of the first half, but was never able to pull ahead by more than four points during the first 20 minutes en route to a 32-32 halftime score.
Gannon engineered an 8-0 run during the first four minutes of the second half to assume its biggest lead of the evening at 40-34 with 16 minutes remaining. Cal produced a 7-0 blitz midway through the second half to regain the lead and never trailed again despite the two teams being tied five times down the stretch. The Vulcans' largest lead came at 62-56 with 37 seconds remaining.
Thomas-Edwards led all scorers with 18 points, finishing one point shy of his career-high. The junior narrowly missed his second double-double with nine rebounds. Blazek added 17 points and six rebounds.
A'Darius Porter (Stockbridge, Ga./Woodland) chipped in 12 markers and six boards.
Gannon shot 43.4 percent (23-53) from the field, but dropped from a 56.5-percent (13-23) clip in the first half to 33.3 percent (10-30) in the second half. The Golden Knights shot 25 percent (4-16) from three-point range and 60 percent (9-15) from the free throw line. The squad out-rebounded its 19th consecutive opponent by a 35-27 count.
Alonzo Murphy headlined the Cal offensive unit with a double-double effort of 12 points and 12 rebounds in 25 minutes. Jacubec and Marks followed with 10 points each. Eight of Mark's 10 points came during the final 3:28 of regulation.
California (Pa.) shot 44.7 percent (21-47) from the floor, heating up from a 37-percent (10-27) showing in the first half to a red-hot 55-percent (11-20) effort in the second half. The Vulcans shot 41.7 percent (5-12) from behind the arc and 88.2 percent (15-17) from the charity stripe.
Gannon dropped to 11-8 overall and 6-3 in the PSAC West while seeing its season-best five-game win streak snapped. California (Pa.) managed a season split, improving to 9-10 overall and 4-5 in divisional play. The Golden Knights return to action Saturday, February 1 against Seton Hill in the team's only Saturday home contest of the second semester at the Hammermill Center. In addition to being part of the seventh annual Pink Zone doubleheader, the contest will also be part of the Gannon Athletics Hall of Fame doubleheader. Admission is free of charge with donations towards the Pink Zone effort being gladly accepted. The 2014 Gannon Athletics Hall of Fame Class will be honored at halftime of the men's game. The doubleheader begins with the women's match-up at 1 p.m. followed by the men's game at 3 p.m.
