HTML BOX SCORESHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Bloomsburg University men's basketball team suffered an 84-77 loss at Shippensburg University on Wednesday night at the Heiges Field House. It was just the Huskies' second loss in their last twelve games, but it means that Bloomsburg will open the PSAC Tournament with a rematch against the Raiders, on the road, on Saturday, February 27.
Bloomsburg finishes the regular season with a 17-9 overall record and a 15-7 mark in the PSAC Eastern Division. Shippensburg concludes the regular season with an 18-8 overall mark and an identical 15-7 record in league play. However, Shippensburg holds the tiebreaker on Bloomsburg so the Huskies must make the return trip on Saturday.
Redshirt sophomore
Christian Mortellite (Hammonton, N.J./Hammonton) paced the Huskies with his fourth double-double of the season. He finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds – his 15th 20-point effort of the season. Mortellite also hit four three-pointers, giving him 64 for the season – the seventh-highest single-season total in program history.
Redshirt senior
Wes Lyons (Millville/Millville) tied a season-high with 16 points while redshirt freshman
Tyriek Steward (Wilkes-Barre/Elmer Meyers) (11) and junior
Donell Diggs (Washington, D.C./Takoma Academy) (10) also reached double figures.
Shippensburg started hot and jumped out to a seven-point advantage, 19-12, with 11:00 left in the opening half. However, Lyons scored the next seven points of the game to knot the contest at 19-19 with 8:49 left. Diggs followed with a layup to give the Huskies their first lead of the game with 8:31 remaining.
Steward knocked down his first of two triples on the evening to give the Huskies a five-point advantage with 7:57 left. Bloomsburg would not trail the rest of the first half and built up two other five-point leads during the stretch. However, the Raiders scored the final five points of the half to send the teams to the locker room tied at 34-34.
Bloomsburg started strong in the second half and never trailed for the first 15 minutes. The Huskies built up their biggest lead of the game, 61-53, when Lyons converted a layup with 8:32 left in regulation. But, the Raiders began to chip away and went on a 9-1 run over the next two minutes to tie the game at 62-62 with 6:42 remaining.
Mortellite knocked down a pair of foul shots and Diggs hit a layup to put the Huskies back in front by four, 66-62, with 6:03 left. But, the Raiders, aided by three triples from Justin McCarthur in just over a minute, went on an 11-2 run to build a five-point lead, 73-68, with 3:56 left.
The Raiders would never trail the rest of the way, building up an eight-point advantage down the stretch, before settling for the seven-point victory.
Free-throw shooting proved to be the difference on Wednesday night as the Huskies went 12-of-22 from the charity stripe (54.5%) while Shippensburg knocked down 24 of its 28 attempts (85.7%). The Raiders put the game out of reach by hitting their final 14 foul shots, including 8-of-8 in the final 1:25 of regulation.
Bloomsburg shot 43.9% from the field and made 7-of-18 from three-point range (38.9%) while Shippensburg shot 42.9% from the field and was 6-of-21 from long distance (28.6%). Rebounds were dead even at 36-36 while Bloomsburg held an edge in the turnover margin, 11-10.
McCarthur finished with 22 points to lead the Raiders.
With the season series tied at one game apiece, the Huskies and Raiders will meet in the rubber match in the opening round of the PSAC Tournament on Saturday, February 27 at Heiges Field House. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.
