Buffalo, NY - The D'Youville Men's Basketball Team challenged the conference leading Penn State-Behrend Lions for 40 minutes Thursday evening, falling in the final minutes to the first place Lions by the final score of 71-65.

To open the scoring for the Spartans, senior Julian Reed (Cheektowaga, NY/Union-Endicott) scored the team's first 2 baskets and gave his team an early 4-2 lead. Throughout the first 10 minutes of the game, D'Youville either led the game or shared the lead. Marcus Clarke (Olean, NY/Archbishop Walsh Academy) took over the first half, scoring 12 straight points for the Spartans on 5 consecutive baskets. Tied at 31-31, Steve Kunelius (Oswego, NY/Oswego) hit his second three-pointer of the half to give D'Youville the lead. Penn State-Behrend outscored D'Youville 10-5 in the final 5 minutes to take a 41-36 lead into halftime.

The D'Youville offense came out in the second half strong, including a quick basket :11 seconds into the half off a Bayani Salinas (Antioch, CA/Antioch) made jumpshot. Jon Gemerek (Cheektowaga, NY/Depew) followed up 2 made Julian Reed free throws by making 2 straight baskets of his own to bring the score within 1 basket. 

With 13:40 remaining in the game, D'Youville trailed by 10 points for their largest deficit of the game. The home team then went on a 9-0 scoring run, highlighted by the made three-pointer of Conor Gallivan (Elma, NY/Iroquois) in which he was fouled and made the ensuing free throw. Julian Reed tied the game at 57 with 8:18 left in regulation after a made layup. The next trip down the court, the sharp shooting Marcus Clarke hit a three to give the Spartans their first lead of the second half.

Zach Blask (Portville, NY/Portville) extended D'Youville's lead by 3 on a successful field goal attempt. Jon Gemerek would regain the lead on a good free throw after a Penn State-Behrend three-pointer. Despite their hard fought effort all game, D'Youville would be outscored 9-2 in the final 6 minutes to lose by the final score of 71-65.

"We played very hard, hard enough to win the game," said fourth year Head Coach Earl Schunk. "A couple of shots didn't fall and for some reason we weren't able to get to the free throw line at the end," Schunk continued.

Marcus Clarke had a strong game coming off the bench, leading all D'Youville scorers with 18 points. Clarke went 4-7 from behind the arc to go with his 4 rebounds and 4 assists. Zach Blask was also a key contributor for the team, scoring 12 points off the bench, second overall on the team. Julian Reed scored 10 points while pulling in 6 rebounds and blocking 5 shots. 

Steve Kunelius went 2-2 on three-pointers, also taking on some of the big players of the Lions frontcourt. Jon Gemerek had another solid all-around solid game, scoring 6 points with 6 rebounds and giving out 3 assists.

Despite a considerable height advantage, the Spartans were only out rebounded by 6 due in large part for their outstanding team defense and ability to close out. Coach Schunk thought the team's effort on the glass was enough to get the W.

"For us to compete on the boards with only one guy over 6'1" much of the time, we deserved to win the game." 

Overall, Coach Schunk knew his team gave it their all Thursday night against the conference's best team and that with this type of effort, the team has a great chance of success this season.

"I'm really proud of the guys effort. If we can sustain this level of play throughout the rest of the second half of the league schedule, I think we will really like the results."

The men will look to rebound on Saturday, January 24th as they travel to Pitt.-Greensburg to take on the Bobcats at 3:00pm.