Cal gets rare home sweep of IUP
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By Bill Hughes
For the Observer-Reporter
newsroom@observer-reporter.com
CALIFORNIA – Rivalry games always seem to bring out the best in opponents.
Wednesday night, California swept IUP to earn bragging rights over their bitter rival in a key PSAC West basketball doubleheader at the Convocation Center.
In the men’s game, the Vulcans downed the Crimson Hawks, 75-68, to sweep IUP for the first time since the 2007-08 season. The win ended a 10-game home losing streak to IUP.
“It was a hard-fought win that felt like a rock fight,” said Cal head coach Danny Sancomb. “They are a good team that plays hard.
“I thought we were very consistent defensively and good enough offensively to make plays when we needed to.”
K.J. McClurg led a quartet of Vulcans in double figures with 19 points while Donald Whitehead added 18, Jermaine Hall tallied 13 and Keith Palek finished with 11.
Hall added a game-high 12 rebounds.
Cal (18-3, 24-3) led for 36 minutes while IUP (13-8, 16-11) led for only 3:30.
The Vulcans shot 42 percent (29 of 69) for the game while IUP shot 39.7 percent (25 for 63). IUP’s three-point shooting kept them in the game as the Crimson Hawks made 10 of 24 attempts while Cal made five of 25.
“I thought we had some good looks that didn’t go down,” said Sancomb. “We didn’t shoot great from the foul line, we didn’t shoot well from the three, but we kept battling and played hard. To beat a team like that, you have to play hard.”
Cal made 12 of 20 free throws while IUP made eight of 13.
IUP, which got no closer than six points the last 7:28 of the game, was led by Garvin Clarke, who finished with a game-high 25 points.
The Cal men will host a PSAC quarterfinal game Wednesday.
In the women’s game, the Vulcans (20-7, 15-6) got a last-second stop to down the Crimson Hawks (20-6, 16-5), 61-60.
“I’m super proud of the way we fought back,” coach Jess Strom said. “Obviously, we had a rough first half, but we came out in the second half on a mission.
“IUP is a really good team and I thought our effort in the second half was outstanding as our post players took over and really wanted to win this game.”
Down by as many as 16 points (41-25) in the third quarter, Cal outscored IUP 18-7 the rest of the quarter to trim the Crimson Hawks’ lead to 48-43 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Vulcans took the lead for good on a Dejah Terrell jumper with 4:51 to go, although the Crimson Hawks had a chance to win it in the closing seconds.
However, a jumper by IUP’s Maria Cerro at the buzzer was off the mark and the Vulcans earned the win.
Terrell led Cal with 25 points and became the 29th player in program history to reach the 1,000-point mark. She finished with 11 rebounds while Allycia Harris added 22 points and nine rebounds.
Cerro led IUP with 17 points.
The difference in the game was Cal scored 20 points off of 21 IUP turnovers while IUP only had six points off of 12 Cal turnovers.
Cal closes the regular season Saturday at Edinboro (16-10, 14-7) with the PSAC West’s third seed on the line, and the Vulcans will host a PSAC first round game Monday.