Oberlin, O.H.- A strong second half was not enough as the Clarkson University Men's Basketball team fell to Lawrence University, 79-74, in the consolation match-up of the Oberlin Tournament, Saturday afternoon.
Both teams experienced a bit of a slow start, failing to capitalize on several of the game's first possessions. Steve DeRegis would get the Knights on the board a little under a minute and a half into the game with a spot-up three from the right side and then find a cutting Braeden Burns on a backdoor move about three minutes later as Clarkson took an early 5-4 lead. As the game progressed, Lawrence began to connect on more three-point attempts with back-to-back makes from Nathan Valentine and Nicholas Gouriotis pushed the Vikings lead to 12-7. Matt Toscano would connect on a three of his own cutting the lead to two, before a 7-0 run by Lawrence opened that lead back up to nine.
Clarkson managed to answer with a six-point run of their own starting at the 10:34 mark with a pair of free throws from Burns, a driving layup from Jeff Dewar and a fade-away mid-range jumper from Finn Cork as the shot clock buzzer sounded. With Lawrence turning up their full-court trap defense, the Vikings would again go on another nine point run over the next two minutes, pushing the lead to 28-16, with three free throws from Nicholas Manzanera and two more three pointers from Valentine and Gouriotis. The Knights were able to cut the deficit in half, as a turn around hook shot from Jack Dalgety seemed to light a bit of a spark in the closing five minutes of the first half. Cork would find himself open under the basket off a nice feed from Ben Rappa for a layup, while another jumper from DeRegis closed the gap to 28-22.
Despite the pressure, Lawrence would again connect on another three and two more mid-range attempts in the final three minutes, pushing the lead back to double digits, 35-25, headed into the break. Shooting struggles seemed to plague the Knights over the opening 20 minutes, with no player scoring more than six points.
As the Knights began to piece together stops on the defensive end, shots also began to fall on the other side with Clarkson erasing the Vikings advantage to just three, 45-42, at the 14 minute mark. DeRegis would connect on his second three of the game to get the roll started with a jumper and three from Matthew Parent closing the lead to five before three straight buckets from Cork got the Knights to within three. Even with the game momentum against them, Lawrence would again answer the challenge from the Knights piecing together another nine-point run pushing the lead back to 54-44 with 11:36 remaining in the contest.
Managing to stay within single-digits as the game clock approached zero, Clarkson cut the lead to just three, three separate times under 30 seconds. Excellent free throw shooting by the Vikings would not give the Knights a chance to get any closer, Lawrence finished out the final 20 seconds of the game going 6-6 from the charity stripe as Clarkson would drop the second game of their road weekend in Ohio.
For the Knights, Burns would lead the way with 24 points and seven rebounds. Cork would supply his second double-double in as many days dropping in 16 points while grabbing 11 rebounds and dishing out five assists. DeRegis (12) and Parent (12) would round out the leading scorers for Clarkson. Valentine led the Vikings with a game-high 25 points, going 5-7 from three-point land. Gouriotis dropped in 14 points while Landon Key supplied 11 points and seven rebounds for Lawrence.
Clarkson held a significant advantage on the boards (40-28), while also holding a 12-1 advantage on the offensive glass and an upper hand in bench points, 17-11. The Vikings held a slim advantage in points in the paint (32-30) and fast-break points (17-6). Three-point shooting was a downfall over the course of the contest for the Knights as the team combined to go 9-34 (26.5%) from behind the arc.