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Knights find rhythm in 65-52 win over SLU

Posted 1/11/12

Canton, NY - After a subpar first half, the Clarkson University Men's Basketball team found its stroke in streaks to gain a 65-52 Liberty League win over St. Lawrence University Tuesday evening at …

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Knights find rhythm in 65-52 win over SLU

Posted

Canton, NY - After a subpar first half, the Clarkson University Men's Basketball team found its stroke in streaks to gain a 65-52 Liberty League win over St. Lawrence University Tuesday evening at Burkman Gymnasium.

The Golden Knights improved to 8-2 overall this season and start off the league on the right foot with a 1-0 mark, while St. Lawrence saw its record evened at 5-5 overall and 2-1 in conference games. Clarkson will travel to take on Hobart and RIT this weekend.

Clarkson struggled offensively to start the game, making only one of its first 12 3-point field goal attempts, yet the Golden Knights never trailed by more than four in the first half, and in fact led for a good portion of the opening 20 minutes. It wasn't until the second half that the Knights got going as Clarkson's steady inside looks yielded many open lay ups. While the Knights continued to struggle from the perimeter, they made 13 of 17 shots from inside the 3-point arc and made 54.2 percent of their shots overall in the second half.

Trailing by a point at the break, Clarkson took the lead for good on a lay up by John Coleman (Potsdam, NY) at the 17:31 mark of the second half and then made the most of its offensive possessions by getting second chances on missed shots. Over a five minute stretch, Clarkson saw its lead expand from two points (31-29) to 11 points (44-33), and just as it seemed that St. Lawrence was going to get back into the game, Coleman tipped in a shot off the backboard on an incredibly athletic play to lift Clarkson's advantage back to 10 points. The played proved to be key, as St. Lawrence did pull back to within six points before back-to-back 3-pointers from Marques Charlton (Deer Park, NY) and Jerry Coleman (Potsdam, NY) pushed the advantage to 13 points with 4:41 remaining. With the momentum turned, Clarkson never saw its lead fall below double figures and held on for the 13-point victory.

Senior Felix Llanos (Queens, NY) led all scorers with 20 points, but narrowly edged out John Coleman, who came through with 18 points. Charlton tossed in 16 points and alson contributed seven rebounds, seven assists and four steals.

For St. Lawrence, Kyle Miller came off the bench to score 14 points, shooting 4-for-7 from beyond the 3-point line. Ralph Temgoua had 11 rebounds, but the Saints' leading scorer shot just 2-for-15 in the game for five points.