Potsdam, NY – With a flurry of 3-pointers in the opening minutes, Plattsburgh established a sizeable lead early which turned out to be too much to overcome as the Clarkson University Men’s Basketball team came up short in its comeback attempt Sunday evening, falling 85-75 to the Cardinals in non-league action at Alumni Gymnasium.

The Golden Knights lost for the first time in 2009-10 and fell to 3-1 overall while the Cardinals moved to 4-1 on the season. Clarkson will travel for the first time this year on Tuesday when they visit Oswego State.

Plattsburgh entered the game shooting just 19.4 percent from beyond the 3-point arc, but made that statistic irrelevant as the team buried its first five attempts from long range. Despite timeouts by the Knights in hopes of cooling off the Cardinals, Plattsburgh pushed its lead to 14 points in the first eight minutes. Though the Knights were able to cut the lead to five points at 27-22, Plattsburgh went on a 13-1 run by creating numerous turnovers with full court pressure. The Cardinals continued their run to end the half, finishing with a 51-26 edge on a 24-4 run.

Plattsburgh shot 67.9 percent from the field (19-for-28) and turned the ball over just five times in the first half, while Clarkson conversely struggled at 8-for-23 (34.8 percent) with 10 turnovers. Steve Thomas was the key shooter for Plattsburgh, scoring 16 points on 5-for-6 shooting with three 3-pointers, while Errol Daniyan added 10 points. For Clarkson, Elson Pickering (Brooklyn, NY) had nine points.

In the second half, the Cardinals doubled up the Knights early on at 58-29, but Clarkson stepped up its defensive pressure and got back to with in 20 points before a pair of fastbreak layups returned the Plattsburgh edge to the mid-20s. Rey Jefferson (Budd Lake, NJ) helped the Knights pull back into the contest by getting hot from the perimeter, but the junior guard had to leave with approximately five minutes to go after sustaining a head injury while taking a charge. Jefferson’s absence didn’t slow down the Knights’ late charge as the team got to within 10 with just over three minutes to go after a strong lay up from Jonathan Hood (Cortlandt Manor, NY). Over the course of the next minute and a half, the two teams traded points as Clarkson pulled back to within eight points on three separate occasions, prompting a timeout from the Knights with 1:27 to go. Despite continued attempts to cut the Plattsburgh advantage, the Cardinals made their free throws down the stretch to hold on for the victory.

Jefferson finished with 19 points in 20 minutes, shooting 7-for-8 from the floor with five 3-pointers, while Felix Llanos (Queens, NY) scored 16 points with three 3-pointers. Pickering finished with 12 points and Brandon Linton (Queens, NY) added eight points and seven rebounds.

For the Cardinals, Steve Thomas ended with a game-high 21 points on 6-for-8 shooting from the field and 6-for-7 from the line. Carl Munnerlyn came on late to score 18 points to go along with his six steals. Errol Daniyan added 19 points, going 5-for-6 from the field and 9-for-12 from the free throw line.