SCRANTON, Pa. – The Cairn University men's basketball team won, 69-63, in overtime on the road at non-conference opponent Marywood University on Friday evening in the first round of the Electric City Classic, hosted by Marywood. With the win, the Highlanders advanced to the Electric City Classic Championship, taking place tomorrow.
Both teams started out sluggish in the first half offensively, as they were deadlocked at 19-19 with 8:41 left in the half. From that points, the host Pacers (2-2) went on a 16-4 run to close out the period and led Cairn 35-22 at intermission.
In the second half, the Highlanders had some ground to make up, trailing 41-31 with 17:03 remaining. The Highlanders immediately responded with a 10-0 run, knotting the game up at 41-all with 12:38 left in regulation. Both teams traded leads late in regulation, resulting in both teams being deadlocked at 58-58 with over two minutes two play. The offenses stymied again, as two turnovers by both teams kept the game all-square and sent the contest to overtime. Cairn opened up the overtime frame with a 6-2 run to take a 64-60 lead with 2:29 left. However, a triple from Caleb Vigil of Marywood cut the deficit to one (64-63) on the very next possession. Highlander junior
Josh Forker (Telford, PA / Faith Christian) split a pair of free throws to make it 65-63 with 1:22 left. After Cairn got a defensive stop the next time down the floor, Cairn senior
Jesse Rivera (Doylestown, PA / Central Bucks East) went to work in isolation, beating Pacer guard Corey Perkins off the dribble and knocking down the mid-range jumper to give Cairn a two-possession lead (67-63) with 23 seconds left. Cairn iced the game with a defensive stop on the other end and two free throws by junior
Dashaun Cain (Wilmington, DE / Red Lion Christian Academy) to seal the victory.
Cairn out shot Marywood in the contest 45.9% (28-61) to 37.7% (23-61). The Highlanders topped the Pacers in rebounding (45-31) and dominated the paint with 48 points inside compared to 16 for the Pacers.
Cairn was led again by senior
Kameron Clark (Ewing, NJ / Ewing), who posted a game-and season high 24 points to go along with a game-high 17 rebounds. Clark was 10-for-14 from the field to lead all scorers. Rivera followed with a career-high 18 points on eight-of-12 shooting and tied a team-high five assists with junior
Wes Murray (Reading, PA / Exeter HS). Murray also posted seven points and eight rebounds on the day.
Cairn will be back on the court on tomorrow for the Electric City Classic Championship game when they take on Penn State Altoona, who defeated Penn State Abington (81-74) in the other first round matchup. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m.
