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Jan. 20, 2010
Darryl Webb bounced back from a rare off night with game highs of 23 points and 10 rebounds, and Thomas Young reached the 20-point mark for the third straight game to lead IUP to a 77-53 victory over Lock Haven and sole possession of first place in the PSAC West. With the win, IUP took over sole possession of first place in the PSAC West with a 3-0 division record, and the No. 9 Crimson Hawks improved to 14-1 overall. Lock Haven, which opened league play with two victories, dropped to 5-9 overall and 2-1 in the PSAC West. Akida McLain was the third Crimson Hawk in double figures with 13 points while also grabbing nine rebounds. Young and Ashton Smith both had seven rebounds as IUP held a dominating 46-24 advantage on the boards in defeating the Bald Eagles for the fifth straight time. Warren Christian led Lock Haven with 15 points followed by Eric Brennan with 12 and Dalexis Pena with 10. In addition to their struggles on the boards, the Bald Eagles also shot just 33.3 percent from the floor. Webb hit 9 of his 14 field goal attempts to rebound from a four-point game at Mercyhurst when he was saddled with early foul difficulty. He moved up three places on the IUP career scoring list, with his total of 1,106 allowing him to eclipse Mark Maier, Tom Kerstetter and Gerald Brooks for 17th place in school history. Webb, who had his ninth double-double of the season and fifth in the past six games, also moved past Mike Mitten for fifth place in career rebounds with 680. Young continued his string of 20-point games which also includes performances of 26 points versus Clarion and 21 versus Mercyhurst in the first two PSAC West games of the season. His scoring surge improved his season average to 15.9, second only to Webb's 17.4 on the team. The game was close for awhile and was tied at 11 before IUP went on a 15-2 run to take charge. Baskets by Webb and Young followed by a 3-pointer by Julian Sanders made it 18-11, and a bucket by McLain with 6:20 left in the first half capped the run that put the Crimson Hawks ahead 26-13. IUP scored the final seven points of the first half to take a 43-25 lead into the locker room and was in front 54-34 before the Bald Eagles made one last attempt to stay in contention. Lock Haven ran off 12 of the next 16 points and closed to within 58-46 on two free throws by Brennan with 7:28 left. But a 3-point play by Webb just over a minute later pushed it back up to a 15-point game, and the Crimson Hawks scored the final 11 points of the game to create their final margin. IUP wraps up its three-game PSAC West road swing Saturday at Gannon before returning home to host California a week from tonight at 7:30. |
