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Feb. 18, 2009
IUP secured a berth in the PSAC playoffs and set up a showdown with Gannon for first place in the PSAC West with a narrow 60-58 victory over California Wednesday night at Memorial Field House. Despite holding a seven-point lead with only 34 seconds remaining, the Crimson Hawk win was not decided until California's Jerial Nixon missed a driving layup with one second remaining and Thomas Young grabbed the rebound for IUP, which swept a regular season series versus California for only the third time in the past 24 years. The win gave IUP its first 20-win season since 2004-05 and put the Crimson Hawks in the PSAC playoffs for the 14th time in the past 16 years. IUP and Gannon are tied for the PSAC West lead with 9-2 division records and meet in Erie on Saturday at 3 p.m. The Golden Knights kept pace with IUP (20-4 overall) with a 79-62 win over Edinboro on Wednesday. The win came just hours after IUP moved up two spots to No. 2 in the latest NCAA Atlantic Region rankings, trailing only Virginia Union. Gannon is currently ranked third in the region and 11th in the nation in the National Association of Basketball Coaches poll. Gerald Brooks led the Crimson Hawks with 21 points and moved within five points of becoming the 24th player in school history to reach the 1,000 plateau. He was joined in double figures by Ashton Smith with 15 and Thomas Young with 11. Young also pulled down a game-high nine rebounds and had three assists along with Smith and Sean Christiansen. Chris Moore led California with 16 points, eight rebounds and seven blocked shots. Julian Logan scored 14 points, Kelsey Williams had 12 and Joe Berenato contributed 11. A steal by Julian Sanders led to a layup by Darryl Webb that apparently gave IUP enough breathing room at 58-51 with 45 seconds left. But the Vulcans scored five points in just eight seconds to pull within two. Moore made a layup with 34 seconds left, followed by a turnover by Christiansen and foul on Young that Kenny Johnson converted into a free throw. Johnson made a steal when Smith tried to force the ball inbounds and fed Logan for a layup that made it 58-56. Smith and Williams traded one for two trips to the foul line, and Brooks fouled Logan with nine seconds remaining. Logan also made just one free throw, forcing the Vulcans to foul Smith one second later. Smith made one of two and California called timeout after reaching midcourt. Nixon found himself open driving the baseline but could not convert the final shot to enable the Crimson Hawks to escape. IUP began to pull away after the teams played almost evenly for the first 25 minutes, a stretch that included 10 ties and three lead changes. The Crimson Hawks led 35-34 before going on a 9-1 run starting with a 3-pointer by Smith, one of his three in the game, and culminating in a dunk by Webb that made it 44-35 with 12:07 to play. California got within three before a 3-pointer and two free throws by Smith made it 52-44 with 6:32 to play. The IUP lead was not below five until the Vulcans made their desperate last minute comeback attempt. |
