PSAC Men's Basketball
Gannon 67, No. 7 Indiana (Pa.) 62
Box Score
INDIANA, Pa. -
Rogerio Livramento's (Central Falls, R.I./Central Falls) career-high 25 points and another stellar performance by the nation's third-best scoring defense helped the Gannon men's basketball team post a 67-62 victory at No. 7 Indiana (Pa.) Saturday night. The win propelled the Golden Knights to their first season sweep of the Crimson Hawks since 2008-09 while assuming sole possession of first place in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Western Division with two regular-season games remaining.
Gannon finished 5-1 against the top four teams in the PSAC West, including sweeps of IUP and Slippery Rock. The Golden Knights can clinch a PSAC Tournament first-round bye and a quarterfinal home game with a victory Wednesday night against Clarion. The squad can clinch the PSAC West's top seed with wins during its final two regular-season contests against Clarion and Pitt-Johnstown.
The latest Gannon-IUP contest was almost identical to the January 15 match-up at the Hammermill Center. Gannon won that contest 67-61 in overtime and almost matched that same score with a 67-62 verdict Saturday night. The Golden Knights rallied from a small four-point deficit with 15:38 to play on January 15 and came back from an eight-point hole with 13:31 remaining this time around.
Indiana (Pa.) used an 11-4 run to grab its biggest lead of the evening at 42-34 with 13:31 to play. Gannon responded with arguably the biggest run of the night, rattling off 10 consecutive points to forge ahead 44-42. The Crimson Hawks had no answer for Livramento, who scored the first eight points of the run. His lay-up with 9:35 remaining tied the game at 42, before
Adam Blazek's (Erie, Pa./Cathedral Prep) lay-up at the 8:51 mark gave the Golden Knights a 44-42 advantage.
The run came with an IUP scoring drought that lasted five minutes and 12 seconds until Marcel Souberbielle's three-pointer gave the Crimson Hawks the lead back at 45-44.
The IUP lead stood at 46-44, before Gannon assumed a lead it would never relinquish on
A'Darius Porter's (Stockbridge, Ga./Woodland) old-fashion three-point play and Blazek's triple from behind the arc.
An 8-0 Gannon run late in the half iced the verdict. Leading 56-54,
Girbran Smith (Nassau, Bahamas / Seton Academy) converted a difficult running jumper in the lane and followed it with a three-pointer while being fouled on the Golden Knights' next possession. His ensuing free throw combined with two Blazek freebies pushed Gannon ahead 64-54 with 47 ticks remaining.
Gannon never trailed for the first 14 minutes and 18 seconds of the contest. With a Silent Night promotion where fans remained completely quiet until IUP scored its 10th point, Crimson Hawks fans didn't make a single noise until 10 minutes and 12 seconds into the contest. IUP took its first lead with 5:42 left in the first half and ended the opening stanza on a 14-8 run, resulting in a 31-27 halftime lead.
Blazek became the 26th men's basketball student-athlete in school history to score 1,000 career points on a lay-up with 1:38 left in the first half. The junior guard later broke into Gannon's all-time top 25 in scoring, finishing the contest in 24th place with 1,008 career points. He had 15 points, four rebounds, four steals and four assists in 40 minutes against IUP.
Livramento was the offensive story in yet another big road victory. The senior forward scored a career-high 17 points during a 68-61 victory at Slippery Rock on December 4. He topped that figure with 25 points against the Crimson Hawks, ending the night almost perfect with a 9-of-10 field goal chart and a 7-of-7 effort at the free throw line.
Smith completed Gannon's trio of double-digit scorers with 13 points. The junior guard reached double digits for the sixth time this season.
Gannon shot 51.1 percent (23-45) from the field, including a 54.2-percent (13-24) clip during the second half. The performance came against an IUP team that ranked No. 1 in the PSAC and second among all NCAA Division II teams in field goal percentage defense (37.6). The Golden Knights shot 40 percent (4-10) from three-point range and 89.5 percent (17-19) from the free throw line.
Head coach
John T. Reilly's club won for the fifth time this season when tied or trailing at halftime. After dropping six of their first seven games decided by five points or less this season, the Golden Knights have now been victorious in their last three games decided by that point spread.
Indiana (Pa.) shot 37.5 percent (21-56) from the floor, 38.7 percent (12-31) from behind the arc and 53.3 percent (8-15) from the charity stripe.
Gannon improved to 16-8 overall and 11-3 in the PSAC West with its fifth consecutive victory and 10th in its last 11 games. The Golden Knights defeated IUP for the third straight time overall and second consecutive time at the Kovalchick Complex. The Crimson Hawks dropped to 20-3 overall and 10-3 in divisional play.
Both teams will find out where they stand in the region Wednesday, February 19 when the NCAA releases its first regional rankings of the season. The Golden Knights conclude the home portion of their regular season that same night against Clarion at the Hammermill Center. The women's and men's seniors will be honored during Senior Night festivities with seven minutes left in the men's pregame. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m.