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MILLERSVILLE, Pa. – Redshirt sophomore Christian Mortellite (Hammonton, N.J./Hammonton) led a balanced scoring attack with 15 points as the Bloomsburg University men's basketball team posted a 71-60 victory over Millersville on Wednesday night at Pucillo Gymnasium. With the win, the Huskies got back to a game over .500 - 8-7 overall - and moved to 6-5 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division. The Marauders dropped to 2-14 overall and 2-10 in league play.
 
Junior Malik Sneed (Washington, D.C./Spingarn) added a career-high 13 points while junior Donell Diggs (Washington, D.C./Takoma Academy) and senior Malik Garner (Philadelphia/Chestnut Hill Academy) finished with 12 and 10 respectively. Sneed added a career-high five blocked shots while Garner posted a career-best 15 rebounds for his second double-double of the season.
 
Of the eleven players who saw action for the Huskies on Wednesday night, ten scored at least two points with only redshirt sophomore Jameal Tucker (Philadelphia/Academy at Palumbo) not factoring in the scoring. However, Tucker played only the final minute of the contest.
 
The game got off to a sluggish start as both teams could only muster four points apiece through the opening 4:35 of the contest. Things picked up a little over the next seven minutes with Millersville jumping out to its biggest lead of the night, 17-13, with 8:20 left in the first half. The Marauders' Tommy Patterson had seven points during the stretch.
 
The Huskies took over to close out the first half, outscoring Millersville 19-3, to take a 32-20 lead at intermission. Sophomore Kyle-Michael Rose (Middletown, DE/Sanford School) started the run with a basket to cut the lead to 17-15 and then sophomore Chandler Junk (Pennsburg/The Perkiomen School), who has seen limited action this season, nailed a three-pointer with 6:57 left to put the Huskies up for good. Diggs followed with six of the next eight points as Bloomsburg continued to extend its lead.
 
Bloomsburg opened things up in the second half and led by as many as 22 points on two different occasions during the final twenty minutes. After a layup by Mortellite with 4:59 left put the visitors ahead 69-48, Millersville scored 12 of the game's final 14 points to cut Bloomsburg's final margin of victory to 11.
 
The Huskies took advantage of 19 Millersville turnovers and turned those miscues into 24 points, outscoring the Marauders, 24-4, in the points off turnovers category. Bloomsburg also received good production from its bench on Wednesday night, outscoring Millersville's reserves 28-16. Sneed led the Huskies' bench scoring with 13 points while redshirt freshman Tyriek Steward (Wilkes-Barre/Elmer Meyers) chipped in with eight.
 
Bloomsburg held a 43-35 advantage in rebounding but struggled from the foul line, making only 10-of-22 free throws (45.5%). The Husky defense, however, limited Millersville to just 36.4% shooting as the Marauders made 20 of their 55 field goal attempts.
 
Patterson and Markeith Mont paced Millersville with a dozen points apiece while Shawn Williams finished with ten.
 
The Huskies' road victory snapped a string of 15 consecutive meetings between the two schools that the home team earned a win. The last time the road team earned a victory in the series came on January 16, 2008 when Millersville earned a 79-68 win at Nelson Field House.
 
Bloomsburg will try to make it two wins in a row when it returns to the Nelson Field House to host the Bald Eagles of Lock Haven on Saturday, January 16. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.