MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - After opening the 2019-20 season with two games on the road, the Millersville men's basketball team sure looked glad to be back in Pucillo Gymnasium. Led by 30 points from Jaden Faulkner, five Marauders scored in double figures and Millersville pulled away for a 98-87 win over Wilmington in Thursday's home opener.

Millersville (2-1) shot 56.3 percent from the field and 40 percent from three, but Wilmington was pesky late thanks to the 27 points from Jermaine Head. In the previous two meetings, Wilmington erased double-digit deficits in the second half to top the Marauders. That wasn't the case Thursday with Millersville shooting 58.6 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes, turning a five-point halftime advantage into a lead of as many as 19. Caden Najdawi scored 17 of his 19 in the second half. 

HOW IT HAPPENED
• The Marauders led 39-24 with just over five minutes remaining in the first half, but a 10-2 Wildcat run slashed Millersville's lead to just two with less than a second left. But after two Wilmington free throws, Millersville's Khari Williams caught a long inbounds pass 10 feet in front of mid-court and launched a 3-pointer that splashed through at the buzzer. That momentum carried into the second half as Millersville opened the period on an 8-0 run--six of them coming from Faulkner. 
• Millersville's lead reached 19 points three times--as late as 9:19 left--before Wilmington's 13-2 run in a span of three minutes cut the Marauders' lead to eight. Najdawi broke the run with a couple of free throws, Faulkner blocked a shot at the other end and drove for two, pushing the lead back to 12. 

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
• Faulkner finished with 30 points, seven assists and seven rebounds. It was his second consecutive 30-point performance and the first time a Marauder has scored 30 in back-to-back games since Millersville hall of famer Greg Testa in February of 2006. 
• Najdawi sank 6-of-9 shots in the second half and 7-for-12 in the game. He also added eight rebounds in his season debut. Justin Nwosu scored all 14 of his points in the first half. Khari Williams recorded his first double-double as a Marauder with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Mekhi Hendricks added a season-high 14 points and three assists. 

POSTGAME REACTION: COACH CASEY STITZEL
• Thoughts on the game: "I think we controlled the game and they had the two sports when we got into foul trouble with Caden and James (Sullivan) going to the bench. The nice thing is that it never got to a two possession game. It always stayed around eight to 12. We just have to keep working. It's early in the season and it is really hard to blow out teams by 20-30 points. We just have to keep learning how to play with the lead. There was about 10 plays in those two stretches, that if we can cut those down to five, all of a sudden it's a 20-point game."
• On challenges that Wilmington presented: "This was a team that has played well against us in the past. They have some really good guards. They are smaller, they spread you out and it was good experience for us to play a team like that."
• On opening the second half with a run: "Huge. That's something we have matured with. A team punches us at the end of the half and had momentum. Khari hits the big shot. It was good to get some positive momentum. In the past we would have been down on ourselves to start the second half but the opposite happened. We buttoned up. When we get stops and rebounds and get in transition, we have bigs who can finish, guards who can bounce it, we have shooters."
• On Najdawi's debut: "He was good--better than I thought. That first game, when you've been out with an injury, sometimes it can be shaky. It was the first five minutes but he stayed with it and that was big for him not to get down. He had some huge blocks, huge rebounds, hit a three, finished at the rim. You get 19 and eight from him on the first night after sitting out two-and-a-half weeks, we'll take that."

NOTES
• For the third consecutive game Millersville totaled more than 40 rebounds and won the rebounding battle. 
• Millersville improved to 11-6 all-time against Wilmington and snapped a three-game skid against the Wildcats. 

UP NEXT
• Millersville plays Cheyney at Pucillo Gymnasium on Monday, Nov. 18 with a 7 p.m. tip.