Langhorne, PA - Cairn University men's basketball dropped a tight contest on Saturday afternoon, 65-62, against Marywood despite leading by as many as eight with six minutes to play. With the loss, Cairn remains winless this season, while Marywood improved to 5-1 on the year and 2-1 in the CSAC. 

Darnell Clowney and Reuben Lacy led the Highlanders with 16 points each; Clowney finished with eight rebounds and Lacy with nine. Cairn shot a combined 40% from the field and 37% from beyond the arc. Marywood was led by Michael Rotell with 15 points. 

Both teams came out of their halftime talks and played defensive basketball. Cairn took advantage of this and went on a 7-0 run to tie the game at 38-38. Part of this run included a one-handed jam by Reuben Lacy following a steal that got the building fired up.
 
It took Marywood six and a half minutes in the second half to score any points, and from there it was a point-for-point game. Rotell hit two free throws for Marywood to go up by three but Lacy came back on the other side to hit a three and tie it again at 45-45.
 
Cairn then took the lead at 48-47 and started to build a lead. Clowney hit a layup and JD Zamroz nailed one from downtown for three and a six-point lead. A couple of free throws went in and the Highlanders saw their lead stretch to eight.
 
The Highlanders had some good defensive rebounds in the next three minute stretch but Marywood started to claw their way back with a layup and a couple of made free throws. Clowney then stopped their momentum with a big three-pointer and brought the lead back to six at 59-53.
 
Marywood followed that up with a three of their own by Shane Letthand and then a layup by Rotell. Two more baskets in the paint by the Pacers and they took back the lead at 62-61.
 
Omar Askia made one of two free throws with less than a minute to play and tied the game at 62-62. The Pacers moved the ball up the court with a full shot clock to work with and wisely took up most of the time. With eight seconds to spare, Connor Callejas hit his second three-pointer of the game and gave the Pacers the advantage.
 
Three timeouts were called before the teams returned for the final play of the game. JD Zamroz received the inbounds pass and didn't have a good look for three so he stepped in to his defender to take the shot and draw a foul but the shot missed and no foul was called before the horn sounded.

Cairn will take the result into the winter break and return to action Jan. 3 with a game at Penn State Abington at 1 p.m.