MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - It was a battle but Millersville found a way. Behind a career-high 31 points from James Sullivan, the Marauders erased an 11-point deficit late in the second half and snapped a three-game skid with a 91-83 overtime win over Edinboro Saturday.

Without the services of do-it-all point guard Jaden Faulkner, the Marauders continued to find a way to adapt on the fly. Sullivan assumed the role of primary playmaker, made two crucial foul shots to send the game to overtime and also assisted on a fastbreak bucket that all but clinched the victory in the closing seconds of overtime.

Millersville head coach Casey Stitzel told Sullivan before the game that the Marauders needed him to be the best guard on the floor. It is hard to argue that Sullivan wasn't. He never left the floor, playing all 45 minutes. He drew 11 fouls, hit 12-of-15 from the line, handed out a game-high five assists, blocked two shots and grabbed six boards. In the previous two games without Faulkner, Millersville averaged just 59.5 points per game. Millersville still shot just 41.7 percent from the field on Saturday, but Sullivan and the Marauders found enough offense to overcome Edinboro's red-hot shooting through the 40 minutes of regulation and Anthony Coleman's game-high 32 (24 in the first half).

The Marauders also received crucial crunch time production from Caden Najdawi, Mekhi Hendricks, Justin Nwosu and freshman Gerard Mungo. Najdawi scored all 13 of his points and grabbed eight of his 11 rebounds in the second half and overtime. Hendricks scored nine of his 11 in the final 25 minutes. Nwosu scored five and pulled down four all-important rebounds in overtime. Mungo, who had played a grand total of 10 minutes before Saturday, played the final 10:44 of the game, and that group outscored Edinboro 29-12 in that stretch.

HOW IT HAPPENED
• Millersville led for a mere 11 seconds during the first 35:55 of basketball and found itself down 11 with 4:05 to play. Hendricks, however, jump-started the Marauders with a drive for two, and after the Marauders forced an Edinboro miss, Hendricks drilled a three from the top of the key. Mungo intercepted a Coleman pass and Hendricks was fouled. He missed the front end of a one-and-one, but Najdawi worked for the offensive rebound and the put back made it a four-point game. Edinboro missed its own one-and-one opportunity, and at the other end, Najdawi canned two free throws to make the score 75-73. For the second consecutive trip, Edinboro missed a free throw, and Hendricks drove for two more, tying the game with 1:33 to play. Edinboro's Alex Jay drew a foul with 39 seconds to play and made both, putting the Fighting Scots up 77-75 with 39 seconds left. With 21 seconds left, Sullivan pulled up at the elbow but his game-tying attempt missed. Najdawi grabbed the rebound and found Sullivan who immediately attacked and drew contact. With 11 seconds left, Sullivan drilled both. Millersville pressured Edinboro the length of the floor and caused a wild series of passes that resulted in a turnover as time expired.
• With 35 seconds left in overtime and the Marauders holding on to an 85-83 lead, Edinboro aggressively trapped in the backcourt. Hendricks found himself in double teamed in front of the Edinboro bench, but he corralled the ball, whipped a pass to a sprinting Sullivan in the middle of the court who led a three-on-one break. Sullivan snapped the ball to Najdawi, who caught it in stride and threw down a right-handed jam for an insurmountable four-point lead. Millersville did the rest at the foul line with Nwosu and Hendricks going 4-for-4.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
• Edinboro made just 1-of-8 shots from the field in overtime but still finished the game at 50 percent. The Marauders were 13-of-34 in the first half, improved to 14-of-32 in the second and made 3-of-6 in overtime. The difference came at the line where the Marauders sank 8-of-10 in the extra period while Edinboro reached the stripe four times.
• Five Marauders scored in double figures. Sullivan's 31 was backed by Nwosu's 15, Najdawi's 13, 12 from Khari Williams and 11 from Hendricks. Nwosu also grabbed nine rebounds. Najdawi's double-double with his third in five games played.

POSTGAME REACTION FROM COACH STITZEL
• On Sullivan's performance: "We've seen that James at times. With Jaden, James can be the second and third scorer and second or third facilitator. But before the game I told him that he needs to be the best guard on the court. The nice thing is that when you tell that to James he isn't going to play like a pig. He's not going to make plays that aren't winning plays. He defends, he rebounds, and today he knew that for us to win the game he needed to score. That's what he's going to have to do the rest of the year. I know he is fully capable of doing it. It was really cool to see that. He's a really good player and an even better kid."
• On second half defensive adjustments: "We started running at [Coleman]. We came off their worst shooter, rotated on the backside and tried to make them make plays they weren't used to. They were really hurting us running isos and ball screens. They were too comfortable. My biggest goal was to get them uncomfortable. We did a good job of getting them scrambling. The biggest thing was that we got 50-50 balls. The last five minutes of the second half and in overtime we got every 50-50 ball. I don't know why but that's been our nemesis. When we get those we can get out in transition and run our bigs and run our shooters."
• On the dunk in overtime: "My biggest message to these guys since Jaden got hurt is that in basketball you play to win but more importantly you use the game of basketball to deal with adversity and you use basketball adversity to help you when you get out of here. This group has struggled when things haven't gone our way and we haven't had much go our way this year. My message to them was that there is nothing we can do but fight. We got back in the game and in overtime we had the look on our face that we weren't going to lose. That's what I'm proudest about. For us to take the next step as a program we have to fight the bad times. The good times are easy to play. We have to play harder than teams. Our margin for errors is smaller now. We have to do all the little stuff even more. We showed stretches of it today but have to do it more moving forward."
• On Mungo's late-game effort: "He has a little winner in him. He had an ankle injury and was out a couple of weeks so he was a little behind on X's and O's. He has a natural feel when he drives. He has toughness. He's a two-time state champ in high school. He's got that winning mentality. We needed a spark and I was praying that he would give it. Going forward, hopefully he can get into the regular rotation and help us with the ballhandling and playmaking that we need."

NOTES
• Millersville improved to 12-0 against Edinboro inside Pucillo Gymnasium. The teams have split the last four meetings overall.
• Sullivan set career highs in free throws made and attempted and in minutes played.

UP NEXT
• Millersville is off for 10 days before traveling to Georgian Court on Dec. 17 for a 6 p.m. tip.