Golden Eagles fly away with 83-70 victory over Firebirds

Washington, DC: November 29, 2010 – Junior guard Brandon Herbert (Sociology – Baltimore, MD) led the Firebirds (0-6) in scoring for the fourth straight game, and he scored at least 20-points for the third time in four games, but his scoring was not enough as the UDC men's basketball team fell to the Clarion University Golden Eagles (3-0), by a score of  83 – 70.

The loss was the third for the Firebirds at home this season. The game started out close with neither team leading by more than six points through the first 16 minutes of the first half. Then, with 3:30 remaining in the half, freshman guard/forward Mike Kromka stepped to the free-throw line to shoot a pair of foul shots for the Golden Eagles. He made both free-throws to start a 12-0 Clarion run that stretched the Eagles lead to 41-23 with only 49 seconds remaining in the first half. The score at halftime was Clarion 41, UDC 25.

In the second half UDC managed to cut the Eagles lead down to 11 points a couple of times in the final minutes, but could never get the deficit into single digits. Joining Herbert in scoring in double figures for the Firebirds were senior forward Greg Avila (Sociology – Bronx, NY), who had 15 points and a team-high 8 rebounds, and senior guard Tim Ellison (Mass Media – Alexandria, VA), who had 10 points on 4 of 11 shooting from the field.

As a team, the Firebirds shot 46% from the field for the game, and 26.3% from three-point range. UDC hit an impressive 19 of 21 shots from the free-throw line. Clarion shot 55.6% from the field, 66.7% from beyond the arc, and was 13 of 15 from the free-throw line.

Clarion was led by senior guard Mike Sherry who had a game-high 22 points, and junior forward/center Paul McQueen, who had 20 points and made all four three-pointers he took. DC native Jamar Harrison had 14 points for the Golden Eagles.

 Next up for the Firebirds is a trip to Pennsylvania that starts December 9, at 7:00pm, against Mansfield, and ends December 11, at 3:00pm, against Cheyney. UDC lost to Mansfield earlier this season 82-68 at the UDC sports complex.