Box Score Erie, PA – The D'Youville men's basketball team was defeated by the first place Penn State-Behrend Lions on Thursday evening by the final score of 69-47.
Nate Sweetman (Johnstown, NY/Johnstown) opened the scoring for D'Youville, hitting a three to give the Spartans a 3-0 lead. The Lions came back over the next several minutes and took a 11-5 lead but then the Spartans had a run of their own to trail Behrend 14-13 with a Zach Blask (Portville, NY/Portville) made free throw.
With 9:07 left in the half, Steve Kunelius (Oswego, NY/Oswego) drilled a three-pointer and gave D'Youville a 16-15 lead. Over the next several minutes, Behrend went on a 15-0 scoring run and led the Spartans 30-16 with 4:31 remaining in the half. D'Youville tried cut their deficit but the Lion's offense was strong in the first half and they took a 38-20 lead into halftime.
Coming off his last game where he became the program's all-time leading scorer, senior Marcus Clarke (Olean, NY/Archbishop Walsh Academy) was the early source of offense in the second half. Clarke scored 11 of the team's first 16 points in the half. His made free-throw with 10:19 remaining in the game cut Penn State's lead to 14, the smallest of the half.
Despite bringing trimming their deficit, the Lion's offense was too much for the Spartans. Behrend held a 25 point lead with 3:48 to go in the game and would close out the game with a 69-47 victory over D'Youville.
"We defended well, but clearly couldn't cash in on the offensive end," said Head Coach Earl Schunk.
Marcus Clarke led the team in scoring with 15 points and tied for the team lead in assists with 2. Steve Kunelius and Bayani Salinas (Antioch, CA/Antioch) each added 6 points. Jon Gemerek (Cheektowaga, NY/Depew) led the team with 5 rebounds with Jeremy VanDuluitgaarden (Oneida, NY/Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) and Andrew Steele (Lakewood, NY/Lakewood) adding 4 rebounds off the bench.
Schunk's team failed to hit their shots all over the court, which led to their season low in scoring.
"We actually had a lot of good looks," said Schunk. "We hurt was nobody shot well at all."
The team shot 33.3% from the field and 21.7% from behind the arc Thursday evening.
"Luckily we play in two days so we don't have time to dwell on this," said Coach Schunk. "We hope to get the chance to see these guys again."
The Spartans will return home on Saturday, January 23rd and host the Pitt.-Greensburg Bobcats at 1pm.
