PSAC EAST

[jrshooter]

Not a good year for those Mansfield Mounties. Ship was seldom stopped offensively, rolling to a 97-77 win at Decker before beating the white stuff back to Cumberland County. 23 for Frank; 16 each for Michael Dickson and Jaydon Smith. Ten Raiders hit the scoring column.

[Ship69]

Not a good year for those Mansfield Mounties. Ship was seldom stopped offensively, rolling to a 97-77 win at Decker before beating the white stuff back to Cumberland County. 23 for Frank; 16 each for Michael Dickson and Jaydon Smith. Ten Raiders hit the scoring column.

It was an exhibition of the pluses and minuses of this year's Raider team. In the first half they kept the Mounties in the game with turnovers and loose three-point defense. In the second half, they took care of business and went on some nice runs. They've already shown the ability this season to either beat or lose to any team in the division on a given night. Hopefully, the Raiders of the last few games will consistently show up.

It is a tough year for Mansfield. At this point it's probably hard to get players to come to Mansfield and harder still to keep them. They certainly could use Michael Dickson or Saraj Ali, both former Mansfield players, this season. Hard to believe that Mansfield often was one of the league's better basketball programs when I went to Ship years ago.

[WarriorVoice]

ESU had an interesting night against Kutztown. The Warriors got off to a 5-0 start, but then went very cold, and Kutztown built a 7-point edge. ESU battled back and eventually led by 5 at the half. They never looked back, growing the lead to as much as 15, befroe winning 87-73. Freshman F Adrian Brito led ESU with 16, and 4 others scored in double figures. It will be a battle for 1st place in the East tomorrow night when West Chester comes to the Poconos!!

[Ship69]

Ship played one of its best halves of basketball this season against Lock Haven in a game that was basically decided by halftime. The Raiders ran at will in the first half, shooting about 70 percent and hitting 8 three-pointers to lead 51-29 at the break. As college kids will do with a big halftime lead, they came out somewhat flat in the second half and Lock Haven got the margin down to 12 at times, but the lead was never less than double figures. Also the officiating crew decided to insert themselves more heavily into the second half after calling almost nothing in the first half. I'll never blame a loss by any of my sports teams on officiating, but, hey, Ship won tonight, and I will say that Lock Haven getting to a double bonus well before Ship in the second half was a travesty. LH was hand-checking heavily all night and clobbering people under the basket, yet they got to the foul line more than the Raiders did. The calls that were made on Ship weren't as irritating as the ones that weren't made on Lock Haven. It's been the pattern this season, and you sure can't accuse Ship of getting any home cookin' from the officials this year.

And there was one traveling call all night — probably should have been AT LEAST a half-dozen. Wish they'd had the double Euro step when I was playing.

For Raider fans it was nice to end Lock Haven's four-game winning streak against Ship. Their weird gym has been a house of horrors for Ship, even when the Raiders have had top-tier squads. Naturally, Ship ends the regular season at Lock Haven. The win also lifts the Raiders over .500 for the first time in a while.

[WarriorVoice]

ESU missed 16 free throws in a game they lost by 3 points. Not the whole story, but man is it frustrating to watch that happen...What a back and forth contest between two very talented rosters. ESU Sr F Nasir Griffin led ESU with 26, as he dominated in the paint, and went 11-15 at the FT line. West Chester committed 30 fouls, and the game got chippy early, with double technicals handed out in the first 3 minutes. ESU led at the half by 5, but midway through the second half the Rams got hot from behind the arc and took the crowd out of the game as they took the lead. The East is shaping up as a battle royale as the top 6 teams are separated by just 4 games. The second half of the divisional schedule tips-off Saturday, with Millersville coming to the Poconos.

[jrshooter]

Shippensburg 62, Bloomsburg 45. Going to choose to give the Raiders defense some credit for Bloomsburg standing at eight (8) points with five minutes left in the first half today at Heiges. It was 35-16 at the half, and the second half was a slog punctuated by a few highlight-reel plays from Michael Dickson (19 points). I don't know if Dickson has finished any of these tomahawks he's taken to the rim, but he got closer than most 5-11 guards ever will. Markus Frank finished a couple of nice spin drives, too.

Bloomsburg's offense was rather dysfunctional. 14-for-52 from the floor, with a few wild heaves to beat the shot clock..

[WarriorVoice]

Shippensburg 62, Bloomsburg 45. Going to choose to give the Raiders defense some credit for Bloomsburg standing at eight (8) points with five minutes left in the first half today at Heiges. It was 35-16 at the half, and the second half was a slog punctuated by a few highlight-reel plays from Michael Dickson (19 points). I don't know if Dickson has finished any of these tomahawks he's taken to the rim, but he got closer than most 5-11 guards ever will. Markus Frank finished a couple of nice spin drives, too.

Bloomsburg's offense was rather dysfunctional. 14-for-52 from the floor, with a few wild heaves to beat the shot clock..

Bloomsburg might be the youngest roster in the entire Conference. Coach Bess reminded me of that when Bloomsburg came to the Poconos earlier this year. They have some decent talent, but not enough to be a threat on many nights.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Bloomsburg might be the youngest roster in the entire Conference. Coach Bess reminded me of that when Bloomsburg came to the Poconos earlier this year. They have some decent talent, but not enough to be a threat on many nights.

Will he get another year?

[WarriorVoice]

Will he get another year?

That's a good question.

Meanwhile ESU put forth a great effort against a very good offensive team in the Millersville Marauders. The Warriors got up early, 24-10, midway through the first half, and never led by less than 6 in the 2nd half. Ethan Millirons led the Warriors with 13 points and 4 other Warriors scored at least 10 in the win. ESU takes 2nd place and the season series over the Marauders, and head to Bloomsburg and Shepherd this week before hosting Mansfield on 2/11. ESU is still missing 2 opening day starters, so the chemistry this team has built without them is very impressive.

[Ship69]

Shippensburg 62, Bloomsburg 45. Going to choose to give the Raiders defense some credit for Bloomsburg standing at eight (8) points with five minutes left in the first half today at Heiges. It was 35-16 at the half, and the second half was a slog punctuated by a few highlight-reel plays from Michael Dickson (19 points). I don't know if Dickson has finished any of these tomahawks he's taken to the rim, but he got closer than most 5-11 guards ever will. Markus Frank finished a couple of nice spin drives, too.

Bloomsburg's offense was rather dysfunctional. 14-for-52 from the floor, with a few wild heaves to beat the shot clock..

Rather dysfunctional? That's a generous assessment. Bloom basically tried to uglify the game and succeeded. There will be a lot of players with black-and-blue marks after that one. At halftime it was Michael Dickson 16, Bloomsburg 16. Officiating has certainly been interesting lately. One highlight was when Ship's Denzel Figueroa drove the lane, saw a Bloom player blocking his way, and came to a dead stop while barely brushing the defender. The Bloom kid goes down with a world-class flop, and then there's the call — charging of course. Traveling? Stiff-arm hand checks? Jumping into a defender? Fuggedaboutit.

Bloom does have a young team and had five guys 6-7 or taller on the floor at various times. Ship has one. Definitely need to get a tree or two in the offseason.

[Ship69]

The Mr. Hyde part of this year's Jekyll-Hyde Ship basketball team reared its ugly head last night as the Raiders took a road pounding from Shepherd. The makeup game was a bad start to a brutal stretch of four games in 11 days for Ship, three of them on the road and all of them against the upper half of the Eastern Division. Maybe it was a hangover from the WWE match with Bloom on Saturday. We shall see.

[WarriorVoice]

The Mr. Hyde part of this year's Jekyll-Hyde Ship basketball team reared its ugly head last night as the Raiders took a road pounding from Shepherd. The makeup game was a bad start to a brutal stretch of four games in 11 days for Ship, three of them on the road and all of them against the upper half of the Eastern Division. Maybe it was a hangover from the WWE match with Bloom on Saturday. We shall see.

A huge upset for Millersville at West Chester on Monday. It tightens the standings in the East as we are in the second half of divisional play. ESU has 6 games before finishing the regular season at West Chester. It's going to be a heck of a stretch run, and it starts tonight as ESU travels to Bloomsburg to take on the young Huskies...

[Ship69]

A huge upset for Millersville at West Chester on Monday. It tightens the standings in the East as we are in the second half of divisional play. ESU has 6 games before finishing the regular season at West Chester. It's going to be a heck of a stretch run, and it starts tonight as ESU travels to Bloomsburg to take on the young Huskies...

I don't know if I'd call anything a huge upset in the East at this point. West Chester is consistently inconsistent, and Millersville is a very talented team that gave Gannon one of the best games it's had in the PSAC. The Marauders have probably underperformed this season. Yeah, it will be an interesting race down the stretch.

[WarriorVoice]

It's blowout night in the East tonight. Shepherd watches, awaiting ESU on Saturday afternoon. Getting my snacks and beverages lined up for all of it!!!

[jrshooter]

East leader West Chester taking it on the chin at Shippensburg through 20 minutes. Raiders are 9-for-9 from the floor at one point, shoot 61.5 percent for the half, and head to the break wtih a 46=27 lead. Markus Frank is having one of those days when you remember why he's No. 3 in the conference in scoring, driving through traffic time and again for 17 points.