It was a game of missed opportunities for the Golden Eagles as they lost 96-88 to visiting UC Clermont on Saturday afternoon. It was their fourth straight loss.

 

Take some woeful free throw shooting, sprinkle in a few missed layups, fold in some untimely turnovers and misfired shots at the rim and you have a recipe for disaster that no team can recover from.

 

The Navy and Gold were a cold 7/17 (41%) on their free tosses, with many of those misfires coming on bonus chances. On one trip down court, the Eagles missed four shots at point blank range after clearing the offensive glass on an errant fast break layup. Trying to claw back from a late second half nine-point deficit, they missed a pair of free throws, missed an uncontested three and stepped on the end line after a steal under their own basket on consecutive possessions.

 

Despite not being able to get out of their own way, the Eagles kept themselves in the game and trailed just 47-45 at the half, buoyed by the shooting of Andre Leavell and Braden Rostad who scored 14 and 12 points respectively.

 

The Cougars grabbed a six-point lead out of the locker room, and stretched that margin to nine until the Eagles charged back with 7:11 left in the game. Trailing 75-66, a runner in the lane by Mike Huberty, a Gunnar Tharp trey and a free throw by Malik Campbell got them to within 77-72.

 

But five points is as close as things would get. 

 

Clermont put together a very workmanlike run and outscored the Eagles 7-2 to take a 10 point lead (84-74) at the 3:57 mark. KSU Tusc rallied with an acrobatic move to the basket by Campbell and two by Rostad to draw within 86-81, before three empty possessions allowed the Cougars to stymie the momentum and post an eight point victory.

 

With the loss, KSU Tuscarawas falls to 2-6 on the year. They were led in scoring by Campbell who finished with 28 points, 16 of them coming in the final 20 minutes. Leavell added 23 points and Rostad had a collegiate career high of 21.

 

On Tuesday, December 3rd, the Golden Eagles to Penn State New Kensington located in Apollo, PA and a 7:00 p.m. tip.

 

Malik Campbell scored 28 points on drives like this to the hoop.   (Photos by Jim Cummings)