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BLOOMSBURG, Pa. - The visiting Shippensburg University men's basketball team jumped out to an 11-0 lead in the opening three minutes and never looked back as the Raiders came in to the Nelson Field House and defeated the Bloomsburg University men's basketball team, 75-65, on Wednesday night. The Huskies have now dropped two straight and have fallen to 10-8 overall and 6-8 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division standings. The Raiders, meanwhile, improved to 14-3 overall and 10-2 in the division.

It marked the fifth straight win by the Raiders over the Huskies in the all-time series.

Sophomore Khary Mauras (Reading, Pa./Reading) continued to have the hot hand for the Huskies as he led the way with 21 points, six rebounds, and five assists. He added a blocked shot and two steals in 37 minutes of action. Over the last three games, Mauras is averaging 20.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 3.7 assists. Senior Kyle-Michael Rose (Middletown, Del./Sanford School) added 15 points while redshirt senior Christian Mortellite (Hammonton, N.J./Hammonton) chipped in with 14 - all in the second half. Mortellite continues to inch his way closer to becoming the school's all-time leading scorer as he now needs 50 points to break the record which is currently held by Mike Ellzy (1993-97). Mortellite has 1,862 points for his career.

The Raiders nailed three-pointers on their first three possessions of the game and then got a layup from John Castello on their fourth possession to take an 11-0 lead with 17:18 left in the first half. The Huskies scored the next five points on a jumper from Rose and a triple from Mauras to trim the lead to 11-5 with 16:30 left in the opening stanza. That, however, would be as close as Bloomsburg would get the rest of the way as the Raiders went on a 9-2 run over the next five minutes to extend the lead to 20-7 with 11:57 remaining.

Shippensburg got the advantage to as many as 14 points later in the opening half before settling for a 38-25 lead at the break. The story of the opening 20 minutes was the Raider defense against Mortellite as the redshirt senior only attempted one shot in the first half and that came with 4:32 remaining.

The visitors came out firing in the second half as they went on a 19-7 run to take their largest lead of the game, 57-32, with 13:38 left. Mortellite finally got his first points of the night on a three-pointer with 13:13 left to cut the lead to 57-35 and then converted back-to-back jumpers to trim the advantage to 57-39 with 12:29 remaining. The Huskies continued to chip away as Mauras scored the next five points and all of a sudden, Bloomsburg was within 13 at 57-44 with 11:12 left after the 12-0 run. But, the Raiders essentially sealed the game with an 8-1 run to balloon the advantage back up to 20 with 7:47 left in regulation.

Bloomsburg went on one more run - this time a 14-7 spurt - the cut the advantage to 72-59 with 3:17 left after a three-pointer from freshman Ethan Houston (Carlisle, Pa./Carlisle). But, the Huskies could get no closer until the final margin.

The Huskies shot 26-of-62 from the field (41.9%) but made only 4-of-21 (19.0%) from three-point range. Bloomsburg was also just 9-of-13 from the charity stripe (69.2%) which was aided by Mortellite's 5-of-5 performance from the line. Shippensburg shot worse from the field (39.7%) but connected on 11 three-pointers and shot better from the foul line (12-of-15, 80%).

Dustin Sleva finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds while Castello had 15 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Raiders.

The Huskies will head to West Chester on Saturday, January 27 for a 3:00 p.m. tip-off against the Golden Rams. Bloomsburg defeated West Chester, 98-90 back on January 8 at the Nelson Field House.