Complete Game Notes

GAME QUICK FACTS
Millersville (1-0) at Holy Family (0-2)
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008 - 8 p.m.
Campus Center, Philadelphia, Pa.
MSBN

Millersville at #14 C.W. Post
Saturday, Nov. 22, 2008 - 3 p.m.
Campus Center, Brookville, N.Y
C.W. Post Audio | Live Stats

ABOUT THE GAMES
•    Millersville opened its season on Saturday, Nov. 15 with an easy 80-51 triumph over Penn State Abington. Five Marauders made their first-ever appearance in a Millersville uniform and three of the six veterans turned in career performances. This week, however, the Marauders run into a pair of solid programs in Holy Family and C.W. Post, which is currently ranked No. 14 in the NABC Division II Coaches Poll. Both of this week's opponents won over 20 games and reached the NCAA Tournament last season. Wednesday's game at Holy Family begins a stretch of non-conference games that includes four teams that boasted 20-win seasons last year. Six of the next eight non-conference opponents boasted winning records in 2007-08.
•    The Marauders (1-0) travel to Holy Family Wednesday for an 8:30 p.m. game. Holy Family has dropped each of its first two games and is trying to overcome the loss of Michael Sturns who led Division II in scoring last season and was drafted—along with Millersville grad Charlie Parker—in the recent NBA Development League draft.
•    On Saturday, Nov. 22, the Marauders travel to Brookville, N.Y. to face C.W. Post which opened its season with a 74-50 trouncing of PSAC member Lock Haven.
•    Coach Fred Thompson is in his 11th season at Millersville and is looking to take his team to an eighth PSAC Tournament and a fifth NCAA Tournament. In Millersville history, Thompson is second only to John Kochan (1983-96) in overall PSAC appearances, but needs only one more tournament win to vault Kochan for the most PSAC tournament victories as a Millersville coach. If Millersville appears in the NCAA Tournament this year, it will be the third time in school history that Millersville has earned three-straight berths.
•    Wednesday's contest will be broadcast live on the Marauders Sports Broadcasting Network (MSBN). Fans can access the broadcast on www.millersvilleathletics.com. Saturday's contest at C.W. Post will not be aired on MSBN because of the Millersville men's soccer team's NCAA quarterfinal game. The game can be heard on C.W. Post's web site, www.cwpostpioneers.com. Live stats will also be available through C.W. Post.

ABOUT THE OPPONENTS
•    Holy Family has won 40 games (19-9 in 2006-07 and 21-10 in 2007-08) over the last two seasons. A difficult early season schedule has put the Tigers at 0-2. The Tigers opened the season with a 94-61 loss to No. 3-ranked Bentley and then fell on the road at American International, 75-54.  Through two games, the team is shooting just 32.5 percent from the field while allowing opponents to hit 49 percent of its shots. The Tigers have also been out-rebounded by an average of 16 rebounds per game. Wednesday will be the team's first home game. The program is 21-5 at home over the last two years.
•    Justin Swidowski and Ceazer Johnson are the leading scorers with 13 points per game.
•    Head Coach Alfred Johnson is in his sixth season at Holy Family and has gradually built the program into a regional power. His record is 90-59 at the school and the team has won at least 17 games in four of his first five years. The Tigers also reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time last year.
•    C.W. Post is off to a quick start (1-0) and earned some lofty rankings in the preseason. Along with its No. 14 ranking by the NABC, the Pioneers were tabbed No. 10 by Sporting News. C.W. Post went 26-5 last year before falling to Bryant in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Pioneers also won the East Coast Conference title last year and all five starters return.
•    Guard Jonathan Schmidt was the ECC Preseason Player of the Year, but it was Nick Carter –a transfer from SUNY Stony Brook—who led the Pioneers in the opener. He scored 25 points and grabbed eight rebounds in his debut. Schmidt was the only other Pioneer in double figures. Despite an off-shooting night, he scored 12 points and totaled five assists.
•    C.W. Post Head Coach Tim Cluess is in his second season with the program. The 1983 Hofstra grad was a long-time high school coach in the New York area, leading St. Mary's High School to a 264-78 record from 1991-2005.

THE SERIES
•    Millersville and Holy Family have met six times all-time. All of the meetings have come since the 1992-93 season and there have been four games between the clubs during the Fred Thompson era. Millersville holds a 5-1 edge in the all-time series and has won three in a row. Holy Family's lone victory came in 2002-03 by a 72-66 score. Last season, Millersville edged the Tigers 84-79 at Pucillo Gymnasium on Jan. 10. Reggie Bates led the Marauders with 24 points. London Houston posted 19 points and 13 boards for the Tigers. Quincy Marshall and Ceazer Johnson, the team's top returning contributors, scoring 10 and 13 points respectively.
•    The Marauders and Pioneers are meeting for just the second time ever and the first since the 1984-85 season. C.W. Post won the first game, 57-55.

DOUBLE TROUBLE
•    Both Makal Stibbins and Reggie Bates recorded double-doubles in the season opening victory over Penn State Abington. Stibbins' 17 points and 10 boards were both career highs and gave him his first career double-double. Bates had 11 points and 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double.
•    Millersville has seen double-double efforts 15 times in 2007-08 including six in the final five games of the season. Dating back to last season, Millersville has had two players recorded double-doubles in the same game in four of the last seven games.
BLOCK PARTY
•    Makal Stibbins blocked a career high six shots in the season opener against Penn State Abington. His previous best was four, which he recorded on four different occasions. His six blocks were the most by a Marauder since George Bailey swatted seven against Southern Connecticut State on Nov. 20, 1999.
•    As a team, the Marauders swatted seven shots. Millersville blocked seven shots twice and eight one time in 2007-08.

THE LAST TIME OUT
•    Any questions about how Millersville--with just one returning starter--would play to start the 2008-09 season were quickly put to rest Saturday evening. Seniors Reggie Bates and Makal Stibbins each recorded a double-double as the Marauders cruised to an 80-51 season-opening victory over visiting Penn State Abington.
•    Millersville Head Coach Fred Thompson used his bench liberally, as 11 different players played at least 13 minutes and every player that stepped onto the floor found the scoring column. Stibbins set career highs in points (17), rebounds (10) and blocks (6). His six blocks were the most by a Marauder since George Bailey swatted seven against Southern Connecticut State on Nov. 20, 1999.
•    Bates--a Preseason All-PSAC East selection--scored 11 points but took just nine shots and also grabbed 10 boards for his fourth career double-double.
•    Also turning in a career performance was sophomore Rob Coney who hauled in a career-best 11 rebounds and tossed in six points. Junior Zac Bauermaster also scored a career-high, knocking down 4-of-7 from the floor including 2-of-3 from 3-point range for 10 points.
•    Five Marauders made their first career appearances in Pucillo Gymnasium, and it was the newcomers that put the game out of reach in a hurry. Jason Blake, who finished with six points, five assists and four boards, knocked down a jumper 17 seconds in and from there, the Marauders never trailed. Fellow newcomer Palmer McDurfee drilled a 3-pointer on the next offensive trip and added another jumper a minute later to give the Marauders an 8-0 advantage.
•    The Marauders opened the second half on an 11-2 run that quickly put Penn State Abington out of reach. Millersville continued to build the leading, growing it to as many as 33.

MARAUDER MILESTONES
•    Millersville's men's basketball program began in 1899 and since then, it has compiled 1,294 wins, leaving it just six victories shy of 1,300 all-time wins. Entering the 2008-09 season, Millersville is 11th among all Division II teams in all-time victories and 25th by winning percentage.
•    While he has only played in a Millersville uniform for two seasons, Reggie Bates has rapidly climbed up the all-time scoring list. His career average of 16.0 points per game and 1,037 total points places him 32nd all-time. He passed Lyman Reifsnyder '42 and Joe Labatch '56 in the first game of the season. Bates' scored 615 points a year ago and with a repeat effort, he would finish with 1,641 points and 10th all-time just ahead of Lance Gelnett '92, who was inducted into the Millersville University Athletic Hall of Fame this year. Bates is also on pace to be the top-scoring three-year player in school history.
•    Only two coaches in Millersville men's basketball history have reached the 200-win plateau and Fred Thompson is only 15 wins shy of joining John Kochan (285-96) and Richard DeHart (321-298).  Thompson could be the second-fastest coach in school history to achieve the milestone. It took Kochan into his ninth season to win his 200th game. DeHart won his 200th game with his third victory in his 15th year.

SUPER SCORER
•    Reggie Bates produced one of the best single seasons in school history last year and is looking to become the third-straight Marauder to earn PSAC East Athlete of the Year honors if he can duplicate his junior season efforts.
•    Bates scored 12.8 points per game as a sophomore in 2006-07, but 2007-08 was truly his breakthrough season. Bates led the team in scoring with 19.2 points per game and produced the sixth-best single season point total in school history with 615. Bates scored in double figures in all but five games and scored at least six points in every game. He also produced 15 20-point games—two of which came in the NCAA East Regional—and four 30-point outings. Bates was responsible for four of the team's five 30-point games during the year. His 36 point performance against Slippery Rock on Dec. 2 was the top scoring performance of the season for Millersville and the second-best performance in the PSAC.
•    In the second round of the NCAA East Regional, Bates scored 32 points to become the 35th player in school history to total 1,000 points. It took him only 64 games to reach that milestone.
•    Bates finished the season ranked second in the PSAC in scoring average and first in field goals made and total points scored. His points per game average was 34th in Division II as well.
•    His accuracy from the field was also impressive, hitting 47.2 percent of his field goal attempts.

ADVANTAGE PUCILLO
•    Since Fred Thompson took over the program in 1998-99, the Marauders are incredible 110-34 at home in Pucillo Gymnasium. The Marauders have posted a 27-4 home mark in the last three seasons (including 2008-09). The team has won no fewer than eight home games each season. The Marauders recorded eight of their 10 wins at home in 2005-06 and nine of their 12 wins came at home in 1999-00.  
•    Maybe even more impressive is the 44-16 PSAC East record during that stretch. Millersville is 9-1 against PSAC East teams in Pucillo in the last two seasons.

NEW FACES
•    The Marauders return only one starter (Reggie Bates) from last season and lost 62 percent of its scoring and rebounding.
•    Thompson filled the roster with five freshmen and five transfers. Four of the transfers gained experience in the junior college ranks and T.J. Lundy, who sat out last season because of the NCAA's two-time transfer rule played at St. Francis (Pa.) and Division II Tampa before coming to Millersville.
•    The incoming class is also heavy at the guard position. Seven of the incoming players play guard and five are listed at 6-foot or shorter.
•    A pair of newcomers, Jason Blake and Palmer McDurfee are slated to be in the starting lineup for the opener. Blake, a 6-2 point guard, played two seasons at the Community College of Philadelphia. McDurfee, a 5-9 shooting guard,  was the leading scorer for the Community College of Beaver County a year ago.
•    The freshmen accumulated plenty of high school accolades. Mike Seibert was a third team all-state player at Columbia. Cullen Murray-Kemp was the Bayside Conference Player of the Year in 2007-08, and Brandon Widener, who graduated from Penn Manor in 2006-07, was an All-Lancaster-Lebanon First Team pick.

EARLY EXPECTATIONS
•    After posting a 22-10 overall record and an 8-4 mark in the PSAC East a year ago, the Marauders were pegged to finish second by the coaches in the PSAC Preseason Poll. 
•    The favorite in the Eastern Division was defending champion Kutztown. The Golden Bears posted a 19-9 overall mark and a 10-2 mark in the division last year and return all five starters including Preason All-PSAC East picks David Ben and Stephen Dennis. East Stroudsburg finished fourth in the East last year but was picked third in this year's preseason rankings. The Warriors are led by preseason selection Chris Bach. Cheyney, which shared the PSAC East crown with Kutztown, was picked fourth. The Wolves have a new head coach Dominique Stephens but return preseason pick Tyrone Smith.
•    Mansfield, picked fifth, was followed by Shippensburg, which is making the shift to the Eastern Division after the PSAC expansion. West Chester and preseason selection Kenneth St. George were voted seventh, and Bloomsburg was pegged eighth.
•    For Millersville, Reggie Bates was named Preseason All-PSAC East for the second-consecutive season.

FAST STARTERS
•    Thompson's programs have been notoriously fast starters. Last season, the team won five in a row to start the year and 16-of-17 in 2006-07. Under Thompson's watch the team has also opened seasons by winning 9-of-10, 7-of-8 twice and six in a row once.

MARCH MADNESS
•    Extending the season into March is becoming commonplace at Millersville, and in 2007-08, the Marauders earned their 20th bid to the PSAC Tournament since 1984 and the seventh under the direction of Fred Thompson. Millersville has also won at least one game in the tournament in each of their last four appearances.
•    Despite falling in the PSAC Tournament semifinals to Edinboro, the Marauders entered the NCAA Division II Tournament as the No. 7 seed in the East Region and promptly knocked off Edinboro and Pitt-Johnstown to make their second-straight appearance and third since 2003 in the East Region title game. Top seeded California (Pa.) halted Millersville's quest for an Elite Eight appearance by a 64-52 score.
•    Among PSAC programs, Millersville has four NCAA Tournament bids since 2003. Only California (Pa.) has more with five.