Complete Game Notes

GAME QUICK FACTS
University of the Sciences (0-4) at Millersville (2-1)
Monday, Nov. 24, 2008 - 8 p.m.
Pucillo Gymnasium, Millersville, Pa.

Millersville at West Virginia State (2-1)
Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008 - 2 p.m.
Fleming Hall, Institute, W.Va.

COVERAGE
Audio: MSBN
Live Stats (Monday's game only)

TICKETS
Adults: $6.00
Students: $3.00
Millersville Students: Free with I.D.

ABOUT THE GAME
•    Millersville posted a 1-1 mark last week on the road against a pair of opponents won over 20 games and reached the NCAA Tournament last season. The Marauders topped Holy Family 82-76 before falling to No. 14 C.W. Post 105-65 Saturday. It was the largest margin of defeat in Fred Thompson's 11-year tenure at the largest at Millersville since the 1973-74 season. Wednesday's game at Holy Family began a stretch of non-conference games that includes four teams that boasted 20-win seasons last year. Four of the next six non-conference opponents boasted winning records in 2007-08.
•    The Marauders (2-1) host the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia Monday evening at Pucillo Gymnasium. The Marauders are 1-0 at home so far this season. USP enters the contest having suffered four-straight losses to begin the season.
•    On Saturday, Nov. 29, the Marauders travel to Institute, W.Va., for an NCAA Atlantic Region showdown against WVIAC power West Virginia State. The Yellow Jackets are off to a 2-1 start after posting a 20-10 record a year ago and reaching the NCAA Tournament in 2006-07. The program has won at least 19 games in five of the last six years and is 117-41 during that six-year run. Ted Scott, who led the nation in scoring in 2006-07 and missed last season with a knee injury, has picked up where he left off. He's averaging 25.7 points per game so far.
•    Both Monday and Saturday's contests will be broadcast live on the Marauders Sports Broadcasting Network (MSBN). Fans can access the broadcast on www.millersvilleathletics.com. Live stats will also be available via www.millersvilleathletics.com for Monday's game against USP.

ABOUT THE OPPONENTS
•    The University of the Sciences in Philadelphia has struggled out of the gate, dropping four in a row including three at home. The last three losses have come to PSAC East teams, West Chester, East Stroudsburg and Kutztown—all by double-digit margins. The Devils are averaging just 60.5 points per game while allowing 74.2. They are hitting over 47 percent of their field goal attempts but opponents are shooting nearly 50 percent (105-212) from the field and 44 percent from 3-point range (32-72). USP's downfall has been turnovers as it is committing 18 per game.
•    Only two Devils are averaging double figures. Adewale Adefemi is the team's leader in points and rebounds with an average of 12 points and 5.5 board per game. Michael Larkin is the team's top 3-point threat. He's made 3-of-7 from downtown and is averaging 10.3 points per game.
•    Head Coach David Pauley is in his ninth season and boasts a career record of 111-120.
•    West Virginia State is 1-0 at home this season and owns victories over Saint Paul's and Glenville State. The Yellow Jackets' lone loss came in overtime at J.C. Smith. The Yellow Jackets boast a potent offense that is averaging 74.3 points per game. Defensively, they are allowing 65 points per game and opponents are shooting just 38.1 percent against them.
•    Ted Scott, an All-American two years ago, is the team leader with 25.7 points per game. He's shooting 48 percent from the field and 24-of-28 from the free throw stripe. Scott, however, is just 3-of-15 from 3-point range this year. While Scott is the playmaker from the point guard position, Ricky Jackson has quietly emerged as a standout player. He is averaging an impressive 18.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. Darren Jones is leads the team in assists with 15 and is third in scoring at 12.7 points per game.
•    Bryan Poore is in his ninth season at West Virginia State and he boasts a 151-91 record at the school and a 163-105 mark as a collegiate coach. Prior to West Virginia State, he was an assistant for three seasons at Marshall and five years at the University of Charleston. Poore is a 1988 graduate of West Virginia State.

THE SERIES
•    Millersville's Fred Thompson is 3-0 in his career against USP. Those are the only three meetings between the programs. While Millersville is unbeaten, each game has been closely contested. The Marauders won the first meeting in 2004-05 by a 72-65 score and then edged USP 74-62 later in the season. Last season, Millersville won 69-53 on the road behind 20 points from Charlie Parker. Reggie Bates chipped in 19 points and Millersville forced USP in 24 turnovers.
•    Saturday's game will be the first between the Millersville and West Virginia State since 2005-06. West Virginia State holds a 4-0 record against Millersville all-time and is 3-0 against Fred Thompson's clubs. Three of the four games, however, have been decided by four points or fewer. The first meeting came in 1997-98 with W.Va. State winning 82-78. The clubs met twice in 2005-06 with West Virginia State winning the season opener 77-76 and then topping the Marauders 76-72 in January.

CONSISTENCY AND EFFICIENCY
•    While this is Palmer McDurfee's first season in a Millersville uniform, he is the only player on the roster to score in double figures in all three of the team's games this season. His average of 13.0 points per game is third on the team and he scored a career-high 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting against C.W. Post. He is shooting right at 50 percent for the season and has shot no lower than 44.4 percent in a game this year. He also has at least one made 3-pointer in all three games.
•    McDurfee is also careful with the basketball. He has committed just two turnovers despite playing a team-high 96 minutes. He has still managed to be a playmaker, though. He is second on the team in assists with 13.

DOUBLE TROUBLE
•    After playing 62 games without a double-double, Makal Stibbins has totaled two in his first three games of 2007-08. He has set a career-high in rebounds in both games as well.
•    Both 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 saw 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 nine double-doubles in the last eight 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
•    No. 14 C.W. Post scored first and never trailed Saturday against the visiting Millersville men's basketball team to hand the Marauders their first loss of the season. The Pioneers controlled the game from start to finish and became the first time to score over 100 against Millersville in eight seasons as they pulled away in the second half for a 105-65 victory.
•    Millersville (2-1), received a career-high 18 points from Palmer McDurfee, but the undermanned Marauders could not match C.W. Post's potent offense that shot 49 percent from the field, 45 percent from 3-point range and had five players score in double figures.
•    The last team to score over 100 on Millersville was in 2000, when Clarion edged Millersville 107-99. Millersville had scored over 80 points in each of its previous two games, but shot under 40 percent for the first time this season Saturday, hitting 23-of-59 shots. The Marauders also struggled at the charity stripe, making 12-of-25 attempts while C.W. Post cashed in on 21-of-26.
•    Bauermaster finished with a career-high 11 points, giving him two double-digit efforts in his first three games. Stibbins, with 10 points, has now scored in double figures in three-straight games for the first time in his career. He also completed his second double-double of the season by grabbing a career-high 11 boards.

MARAUDER MILESTONES
•    Millersville's men's basketball program began in 1899 and since then, it has compiled 1,295 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.
•    He has only played in a Millersville uniform for two seasons, but Reggie Bates has rapidly climbed up the all-time scoring list. His career average of 16.0 points per game and 1,055 total points places him in a tie with Daron Pressley '04 for 31st 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 14 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.
•    Thompson 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.