Box Score Millersville, Pa. - Millersville is making a habit of dominating the second half of games. On Saturday at Pucillo Gymnasium, the Marauders trailed Mansfield by 10 at the mid-point but roared back with a 50-point second half to win 75-68.
For the third game in a row and the sixth time this season, Millersville (15-6, 11-4 PSAC) trailed or was tied at the half but produced a comeback win. Millersville clinched its first home PSAC Tournament game since 2007 and also ended an eight-game losing streak against Mansfield (5-14, 3-12 PSAC).
Anthony Coleman led four Marauders in double figures with 19 points, giving him at least 10 in seven of his last nine games.
Kemar Williams posted career highs in points (12) and assists (5).
Larry Grant added 11, and
Jaymes Miller scored 10 on 5-of-6 shooting. Miller has now scored double-figures in all five career games against the Mountaineers.
Joe Bell, Mansfield's 2012 PSAC East Freshman of the year, victimized the Marauders with 34 points in last year's meeting in Pucillo Gymnasium, but a variety of defenders held Bell largely in check. He finished with 17 but scored 11 of those points in the final stages of the second half when the Marauders held a sizable lead.
After producing just 25 points on 33 percent shooting in the first, Millersville outscored Mansfield 50-33 i the second. A lone first-half bright spot was the return of
Xavier Mumford, who missed Wednesday's game at Shippensburg. He kept the Marauders in the game with seven points and five offensive rebounds in 12 minutes.
Millersville needed just over five minutes to completely erase Mansfield's 10-point lead.
Elijah Obade scored Millersville's first seven points, Coleman added a pair of free throws, Williams hit a runner, and Miller knotted the game at 38-38 with 14:54 left.
Miller scored on the Marauders' next possession to give Millersville its first lead since the 9:06 mark of the first half. Millersville pushed the lead to 51-42 with 10:27 on the clock, but Mansfield produced a 9-0 run to tie the game with 8:24 to go. The Marauders, however, responded with an 11-2 run in which Coleman and Grant accounted for all of the points. Millersville led by as many as 14 in the final minute.
The Marauders shot 16-of-28 in the second half, and controlled the interior, outscoring Mansfield 48-26 in the paint and totaling 15 second-chance points on 13 offensive boards. Millersville is now 14-2 when outscoring opponents in the paint and 13-1 when scoring more points off turnovers.
18 of Millersville's last 19 opponents have been held to fewer than 70 points. The Marauders have navigated through the first half of the PSAC East schedule with a 6-1 record.
Millersville heads to Bloomsburg on Wednesday for a 7:30 p.m. start.