ROSEMONT, Pa. – The Cairn University men's basketball team won, 66-62, in a Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) contest on the road at Rosemont College on Monday evening, splitting the season-series with the Ravens. With the win, the Highlanders officially clinched a spot in the upcoming CSAC playoffs for the third-consecutive season.
 
Rosemont (9-11, 8-4 CSAC) came out scorching early on, jetting out a 15-0 lead over the first four minutes of the game and held a commanding 30-8 advantage at the midway point of the half, their largest lead of the game. The Ravens maintained a 21-point lead (36-15) with 4:34 left in the period before Cairn (13-10, 7-5 CSAC) ended the stanza on a mini 8-4 run to trail 40-23 at intermission.
 
In the second half, the Highlanders came out with energy scoring six-straight to start the half and ignited a 17-2 over the first six minutes of the half to cut the deficit to two (42-40). After both teams were deadlocked at 44 a-piece with 12:04 to play, junior Josh Forker (Telford, PA / Faith Christian) gave Cairn its first lead of the contest on a triple to make it 47-44 with 11:08 to play. Both teams battled, handing the advantage back and forth en-route to a 61-61 tie game with 1:39 remaining.
 
From that point, senior Jesse Rivera (Doylestown, PA / Central Bucks East) connected on two opportunities from the charity stripe to give Cairn a two-point lead, before Rosemont senior Marlon Sharpton split a pair from the line and the Highlanders led 63-62 with 26 seconds on the clock. Rivera proceeded to split a pair at the other end to give Cairn a two-point lead (64-62) with 19 seconds to play. With one last chance for the Ravens, Sharpton drove with the right hand and kicked it to classmate Chris Briner at the top of the key with a chance to win the game, but Briner's three-point attempt drew iron and Forker collected the rebound. Forker proceeded to knock down two free throws to make it a two-possession game (66-62), sealing the win and a spot in the CSAC playoffs for the Highlanders.
 
Cairn shot 38.6% (22-57) from the floor compared to a 41.4% (24-58) mark for the Ravens. The Highlanders won the rebounding battle (43-32) and held the edge in the assist department (13-11). Cairn won the game with the effort from their bench unit, holding a commanding 39-16 edge in bench points, including a 19-2 advantage in the second half.
 
Cairn was led by Rivera who scored a team-high 16 points to go along with four assists. Forker followed with 13 points, five points and a pair of blocks, while sophomore Matt Lucas (Quakertown, PA / Quakertown HS) added 11 points and dished out a career-high five assists. Senior Kameron Clark (Ewing, NJ / Ewing) grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds to pair with eight points.
 
The Highlanders will be back on the floor on Wednesday, February 6 when they return home to take on Clarks Summit University in their second bout with the Defenders this season inside the Mason Activity Center at 7 p.m.