Rochester, N.Y. - A seven-point half time lead would evaporate in the second half as the Clarkson University Men's Basketball team dropped their season opener to Marywood University, 72-68 in the first round of the Nazareth Men's Basketball Mike Daley Memorial Tournament. The team returns to action Saturday afternoon in the consolation game, facing either Nazareth or Medgar Evers. 

After an opening three-pointer from Aydin Kocak, Marywood would rattle off seven straight points, jumping out to a 7-3 lead three minutes in. A Nate Abernethy layup at the 15:38 mark would knot the score at 10 for nearly two minutes before a Noah Perry three pointer gave the Pacers a 13-10 advantage. Another bucket from Abernethy, this time a three pointer, would break another two minute pointless stretch with both teams at 13 on the scoreboard with under 12 minutes left in the first half. 

With both teams continuing to hunt for a breakaway scoring run, Marywood would piece together a six-point streak until another Kocak long range attempt cut the Pacer lead to three, just before the first timeout of the game by the Golden Knights at 8:46. Out of the breather, both teams traded three point field goals, as treys from Robbie Logan and Michael Loftin would be offset by two Matt Toscano trifectas with Marywood still holding a 25-22 lead. 

Two threes from Braeden Burns and Steve DeRegis gave the Knights their first lead since the 17-minute mark. Burns would make the lead 30-26 with just under five minutes remaining, spinning through the bottom of the Marywood zone to lay the ball in with his right hand. That lead would blossom to nine following a trey from Ben Rappa and a fastbreak lay-in from Abernethy, which forced the Pacers to burn their second timeout of the half with Clarkson up 35-26. 

Clarkson would push the lead to 10 with DeRegis connecting for his second three of the half, answering a layup from Collin Himmelberg that put a stop to a 13-point Golden Knight run. Clarkson led by as much as 12 courtesy of a Burns jumper until Marywood closed out the half with a lay-up and step-back three pointer to send the game into the break with the Knights up seven. Six different players accounted for the nine first half threes from Clarkson to go along with nine assists that were crucial to breaking the zone defense of the Pacers. 

Both teams would come out firing in the second half as DeRegis connected for a long-distance attempt but was answered by Loftin who added two straight treys to also cancel out an Abernethy old fashioned three-point play which kept the Pacers within seven. Marywood would close the lead to five until a free throw from Abernethy and a cutting lay-up from DeRegis pushed the Knight advantage back to eight with 15 and change left to play. 

Still within reach, Marywood pieced together a six-point stretch to get the lead down to just two with 12:40 remaining. Clarkson would answer with a six-point run of their own over the next 90 seconds, taking a 55-47 lead into a 30 second timeout for the Knights. Ramping up the defensive pressure, the lead would grow back to double digits after a Tyson Maxam three and Ben Phillips lay-up were capped off by a DeRegis floater in the lane, forcing Marywood to take a timeout with 6:55 remaining. 

The Pacers would come out of the timeout with a newfound sense of urgency, immediately going on a 10-point run to tie things up with less than four minutes remaining in the contest. Andrew Quinn put the Pacers ahead for the first time in the second half with a fastbreak layup at the 2:33 mark and had a chance to build on that one-point lead but two straight Clarkson turnovers would go unpunished and Marywood would lead 66-65 with the final minute mark looming. 

Marywood pushed the lead to three straight out of a timeout off of a smart curl play and push the lead to five with two free throws. A Clarkson turnover in the backcourt after the inbound led to a missed front end of a one and one by the Pacers and a push down the other end led to Burns spotting up for a wing three-pointer to cut the deficit to two with 9.1 remaining. The Knights were forced to foul leading to Macciocco hitting two more from the line, before a last-ditch three attempt ended up off-target for the Knights as time expired. 

Both teams shot 25-61 from the field (41%) and made 12 shots from behind the arc. Marywood held an advantage in rebounds (40-37) while Clarkson led in bench points (21-12) and second chance points (6-4). Abernethy had a team-best 15 points in his first collegiate appearance while DeRegis (13) and Burns (11) both scored in double figures. Loftin led all scorers with 24 while Macciocco and Austin Bausman dumped in 13 and 10, respectively.