BLOOMSBURG, Pa. – The Bloomsburg University men's basketball team played in front of its home crowd for the first time this season and put on an offensive show as the Huskies broke the century mark for the first time this year with an 101-88 win over visiting Chestnut Hill College, Tuesday evening. The Huskies evened their record at 2-2 while the Griffins dropped to 0-5 for the year.
 
Leading the way offensively for Bloomsburg was freshman Justin Anderson (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) with a season-best 25 points. Anderson went 9-for-17 from the field and added four assists for the Huskies. Senior Ky Mauras (Reading, Pa./Reading) exploded in the second half with 14 points, including the final basket to push the Huskies total to 101, and finished the game with a season-best 24 points. Mauras added a team-best six assists. Redshirt junior Max Wagner (Perkasie, Pa./Pennridge) continues to impress in his first season with Bloomsburg as he pulled down six rebounds, had two steals and two assists, and posted 16 points in limited minutes for Bloomsburg. Redshirt junior Peyton Mortellite (Hammonton, N.J./Hammonton) came off the bench for nine of the Huskies 25 bench points while junior Maqi Watson (Philadelphia, Pa./Mathematics, Civics, and Sciences Charter) added six points and six rebounds.
 
Trailing 53-52 just over three minutes into the second half, sophomore Travis Elmore (Tobyhanna, Pa./Pocono Mountain West) put the Huskies up for good, 54-53, with a contested layup under the basket. Bloomsburg pushed its lead to five, 61-56, with another Elmore layup to take its largest lead of the half up until that point but the Griffins trimmed the lead down to two, 61-59 with 13:29 to play. The two-point gap proved to be the smallest of the half as Bloomsburg used a 16-7 run over the next four minutes to take its first double-digit lead, 77-66, with 9:34 to play. Wagner's layup at 9:34 gave the Huskies their 11-point lead, but Amir Warrick grabbed an offensive board on the Griffins' next trip down the floor and got it to Julius Phillips who a sunk a three-pointer at 9:07 to cut the deficit back to eight, 77-69.
 
The Huskies then used a 9-4 run over four minutes of game play to take a 13-point lead, the largest by either team in the game, 13, for the first time at 86-73 with 4:50 to play in regulation. The Griffins hung around, however, and eventually cut the lead back down to six, 90-84, with 1:20 to go. After Eli Barrett's put back made it 90-84, Anderson pushed the Husky lead back to nine, 93-84, with his second three of the game at the 1:03 mark. A pair of free throws from Mauras gave Bloomsburg a 95-84 lead with 41 seconds left. After another Warrick layup got the Griffins back to within single digits, 95-86, with 35 seconds in the game, Mauras and Wagner both completed successful trips to the free throw line in the Huskies next two possessions to push the lead back to 13, 99-86, and put the game out of reach with 29 seconds left. Scottie Spann got a steal under the basket for the Griffins and finished the layup with 17 seconds on the clock but Mauras finished the game with a layup as time expired to give Bloomsburg the 101-88 win.
 
The first half proved to be a high scoring affair for both sides while neither team could pull away in the first 20 minutes of action. The Griffins took an early 11-6 lead in the first three minutes, but Bloomsburg trimmed the lead down to one, 11-10, at the 13:48 mark thanks to a layup from Watson. Bloomsburg eventually tied the game for the second time at 15-15 and took its first lead of the game since the opening minutes, 18-15, on a Mortellite three at the 10:45 mark.
 
Chestnut Hill used a 15-2 run over the next four and a half minutes of game play to take its largest lead of the game, 30-20, with 6:28 to play in the first. Bloomsburg used a 13-4 run of its own to cut the lead to one, 34-33, with 2:52 before the break. The Huskies tied the game at 37-37 off a layup from Anderson and took the lead 40-39 with another three from Mortellite with 47 seconds to play in the first. Mauras ended the half with a layup as time expired to give Bloomsburg a 42-39 lead at the break.
 
The score was tied four times and the lead changed hands twice the first three minutes of the second before Bloomsburg took control of the game and the second half.
 
The Huskies shot 53.6% (38-for-71) from the field for the game and went 11-for-24 from three-point range. Bloomsburg only turned the ball over four times in the second half compared to the Griffins' seven turnovers and scored 22 points off turnovers for the game. The Griffins won the rebounding battle, 39-36, but the Huskies held Chestnut Hill to 38.1% from three-point range for the game.
 
The Huskies get back on the hardwood on Saturday as Bloomsburg opens up Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) East action against IUP. The Huskies will head to Indiana, Pa. for the 3:00 p.m. contest on November 23. IUP enters the game ranked eighth in the regular season's first National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II poll of 2019-20. The Crimson Hawks are currently 3-0.