Millersville, Pa. - Millersville men's basketball was one friendly bounce away from pulling off one of the most monumental upsets in program history, but a last-second shot rimmed out and undefeated and No. 3-ranked Indiana (Pa.) survived its trip to Pucillo Gymnasium, 74-73.

Millersville (4-4, 1-1 PSAC) was looking to make IUP (8-0, 2-0 PSAC) its third victim of nationally-ranked status in three seasons under head coach Casey Stitzel and overcame a 16-point deficit to deficit to lead for more than nine minutes in the second half. Millersville outscored the Crimson Hawks 42-33 in the final 20 minutes, and that effort was fronted by Marcus Adkison, who scored 22 of his 26 in the second half, hitting six threes including three in a row in one stretch.

"It was unbelievable," said Stitzel. "[Adkison] made the right plays and took the right shots. He made some really tough shots to keep us in it. In that second half he was that type of all-league player. If he keeps playing like that we will have a chance to win a lot of games."

The Marauders, playing crunch-time minutes with and receiving 16 points apiece from true freshmen Justin Nwosu and Jaden Faulkner, hit a cold spell after Jamal Washington's driving two put them up 64-62 with 6:09 to play. Millersville committed five turnovers and missed four consecutive field goals, and IUP's Armoni Foster drilled a 3-pointer to put his team up 71-68 with 2:38 to play. With 1:02 left, Faulkner scored on a hard drive to the right, ending Millersville's five-and-a-half minute field goal drought. On IUP's next possession, Millersville knocked the ball lose, setting off a scrum. Millersville's Amadou Kaba, diving for the ball, was whistled for a foul when he collided with Foster. Foster hit both foul shots for a 73-70 lead.

Faulkner couldn't convert on a drive at the other end, and forced to foul, the Marauders sent Greg Bearer to the line with 14 seconds left. Bearer hit just one of two, and Millersville raced up court. Adkison took a handoff, received a screen from Kaba and splashed a 3-pointer to make the score 74-73. IUP's Dante Lombardi took the inbound pass and was trapped in front of the Millersville bench. Trying to break the double-team, Lombardi stepped out of bounds, giving Millersville one last chance with five seconds left.

Out of timeouts, Millersville in-bounded to Jamal Washington. Well-defended and with time running out, Washington hoisted a 3-pointer from the left wing that hit the rim, bounced high off the glass and rimmed out as time expired.

"We had used our last time out the previous possession to set up Marcus' three," said Stitzel. "It's a tough situation where the ball was. We wanted to get the ball to Marcus and they did a good job denying him. I hoped we could have drove the ball and make [IUP] make a decision and possibly put us on the line. But our guys played really hard, and we will get better for the next time we are in that situation."

IUP built its largest lead at 16 with 2:53 left in the first half thanks to 8 of 14 shooting from three in the first 20 minutes. Millersville limited IUP to 2 of 9 shooting from three in the second half and 41.7 percent shooting from the field. Millersville, meanwhile, made 48.3 percent of its shots in the second. Adkison made six of Millersville's seven second-half threes.

"In the first half we tried to play a little too much hero ball and dribbled too much," said Stitzel. "In the second half, we took our intensity and execution up on defense and we shared the ball. We did a good job attacking their defense. When we play like that we have multiple guys who can score and we are tough to guard."

The loss was Millersville's first at home while IUP, which entered the game with a scoring margin of plus-15.7 won its second true road game. The Crimson Hawks won at Kutztown 97-86 the night before.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
• Adkison scored 26 for the second consecutive game and topped 20 points for the fifth time this season and the 27th in his career. He made 6 of 12 3-pointers, including 6 of 10 in the second half.
• Nwosu scored zero points in 12 minutes in Saturday's game against California. He responded with a career-high 16 on 6 of 11 shooting and also made 2 of 2 threes--the first two threes of his collegiate career.
• Faulkner's 16 came on 5 of 10 shooting and 6 of 6 shooting from the line.
• Millersville forced IUP into committing a season-high 19 turnovers.

NOTES
• IUP has now won eight in a row against Millersville. Joe Lombardi improved to 8-2 in his career against the Marauders.
• Millersville shot 9 of 23 from three and has made at least nine threes in three consecutive games.

QUOTABLE
• "It shows we can play with anyone when we play the right way. We just have to keep working and keep getting better. This team has a ton of talent. We aren't even close to where we could be potential-wise. There is a lot of room for us to grow, which is exciting. We are only going to get better if we keep working and stick together." - Casey Stitzel

UP NEXT
• Millersville hits the road for its next three PSAC games. The road swing begins on Dec. 8 at Seton Hill.
 

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