Bryce Dolak

Box Score

Indiana (PA) IUP 17-13,13-9 PSAC

Gannon Gannon 27-2,20-2 PSAC

Indiana (PA) IUP

17-13,13-9 PSAC

Final

Mar. 06, 2024

Gannon Gannon

27-2,20-2 PSAC

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Indiana (PA) IUP	37	52	89
Gannon Gannon	44	50	94

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | 3/7/2024 12:01:00 AM | Bob Shreve, Assistant Director of Athletics Media Relations

Golden Knights Hold Off Hot-Shooting IUP to Reach PSAC Final Four with 94-89 Win

Third-Ranked Gannon wins school-record 16th straight game.

Next Game:

vs. 2W California 81, 1E Lock Haven 78

3/9/2024 | 12:00 PM

Next Game

Full Schedule

Mar. 09 (Sat) / 12:00 PM

vs. 2W California 81, 1E Lock Haven 78

Roster

ERIE, Pa. – Lyle Tipton (Glenside, Pa./Philadelphia Montgomery Christian Academy) led four players in double figures with 23 points and Gannon held off a hot-shooting Indiana (Pa.) squad to advance to the PSAC Final Four with a 94-89 win in the PSAC Quarterfinals. Gannon will make its first appearance in the PSAC Final Four since 2017-18. The top seed in the Western Division, the Golden Knights have also earned the right top host the PSAC Final Four for the first time since 2014-15.

The Golden Knights, ranked third in the latest NABC Division II Top 25 and D2CSC Media Poll, extended their school-record winning streak to 16 games. First-year head coach Jordan Fee's team improved to 27-2 with the victory, the third-highest win total in school history. IUP saw its season come to an end at 17-13.

Gannon's win marked just the second time since IUP head coach Joe Lombardi took over in 2006-07 that a team beat his Crimson Hawks three times in a season. The other occurred in his second season in 2007-08, with Edinboro doing the honors. Gannon won the first meeting at Hagerty Family Events Center 84-58 and edged the Crimson Hawks 91-89 on their homecourt in the second meeting.

Meeting number three began similar to the first meeting as Gannon jumped out to a 12-2 lead two-and-a-half minutes into the contest as IUP turned ball over four times. IUP, the fourth seed in the Western Division, scored the first basket of the game before Gannon ran off 12 points in a row.

The Golden Knights built the lead to 14 points at 33-19 on a Nigel Haughton (Bel Air, Md./South Kent) layup with eight minutes remaining in the half. IUP battled back late in the half with a 7-1 run to close to within 44-37 at the half.

Gannon was able to built its lead up to eleven points several times in the second half, the last coming at 69-58 with 11:11 remaining. That's when the Crimson Hawks made a barrage of 3-pointers to close the gap. Josh Petteno keyed a 12-2 run with eight points, including back-to-back 3-pointers, and just under nine minutes left Gannon's lead was down to a point at 71-70.

Over the final 11 minutes the Crimson Hawks made six 3-pointers as they went 9-for-14 from beyond the arc after making just 1-of-11 in the first half.
Clinging to a two-point lead at 77-75 the "second wave" came in and gave the Golden Knights a boost. Nathan Schneider (Kersey, Pa./St. Marys Area) drove the lane for his lone basket of the night and was fouled for the conventional 3-point play. IUP answered with a 3-pointer but Schneider's pretty pass led to a Mike Montano (Alexandria, Va./Thomas Edison) layup. Ernest Shelton (Philadelphia, Pa./Father Judge) drained his third three of the night and when Derrick Anderson (Youngstown, Ohio/Boardman) followed up a miss with a layup the Golden Knights appeared to have a seemingly safe 87-78 lead with four minutes to play.

IUP had a different idea. The Golden Knights went scoreless over the next three minutes and when Ethan Porterfield drilled a 3-pointer the lead was suddenly down to 87-84 with 1:22 remaining.

Tipton two free throws boosted the lead to 89-84, but the Golden Knights into some uncharacteristic problems at the line. The second-best free throw shooting team in the PSAC, but Derrick Clark and Josh Omojafo (Hamilton, Ontario/St. Jean de Brebeuf) went one-for-two at the line. With 13 seconds left Porterfield made his fourth 3-pointer from the right wing and the lead was just two at 91-89.

Zachary Hobbs (Gilbert, Ariz./Mesa) gave Gannon some breathing room with 11 seconds left with two free throws, and James followed with a steal. He was fouled and the sophomore guard stepped to the line and made one-of-two with two seconds showing to seal the win.

Tipton finished with 23 points as he went 7-of-12 from the floor with a 3-pointer and 8-of-9 at the line. Omojafo added 16 points. The bench duo of Ernest Shelton (Philadelphia, Pa./Father Judge) and Derrick Anderson (Youngstown, Ohio/Boardman) finished with 14 and 10 points, respectively. Freshman Shelton was 3-of-6 from beyond the arc.
Fellow freshman Montano had another productive night with six points and eight rebounds. James contributed eight points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals.

IUP's Porterfield wrapped up a brilliant career with a game-high 34 points and 10 rebounds. He led four Crimson Hawks in double figures.
Gannon ended the night shooting 45.3 percent from the floor (34-of-75) while IUP rode a 59 percent figure in the second half to end at 51.6 percent (32-of-62). The Crimson Hawks finished 10-of-25 on 3-pointers while Gannon was 8-of-25. Gannon made 18-of-22 free throws and IUP was 15-of-17 at the charity stripe.

Gannon once again enjoyed an advantage in points of turnovers at 22-13 as IUP turned the ball over 18 times and Gannon 12. Gannon held a 40-34 advantage over a taller IUP team on the glass.

The Golden Knights will now host the PSAC Final Four on Saturday, March 9 at Hagerty Family Events Center. California (Pa.) faces Lock Haven in the first game at 12 noon followed by the Golden Knights looking to avenge a December loss at Millersville in the nightcap. That game will tip off at 2:30 p.m. Saturday's winners will meet on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. in the PSAC Championship game.

Bud Elwell

Howard "Bud" Elwell Scholarship

Early in the men's game, Gannon honored two student-athletes with the Howard "Bud" Elwell Scholarship.

Golfer Sarah White and soccer player Toby Gower were named recipients of the award, which is named after the longtime Gannon coach and athletic director.

Gower was on hand to be introduced, along with Director of Athletics Lisa Goddard McGurik and Elwell's widow, Nancy Eisenman Elwell. White was competing for the golf team at the time.