ABOUT THE GAMES

• Millersville hosts the first Ron Wilson Classic on Nov. 13-14, hosting three other teams from the NCAA Atlantic Region. Saturday’s opener between Millersville and Frostburg State is the first-ever meeting between the teams. Claflin and Millersville have met just once before, playing the 2015-16 season opener in Pucillo Gymnasium. Claflin came away with the victory on a free throw with one second left.
• Millersville plays Frostburg State at 5 p.m., and that game is followed by Clarion vs. Claflin at 7 p.m. On Sunday, Millersville plays Claflin at 3 p.m., and Clarion and Frostburg State play at 1 p.m. The event is named in the honor of longtime program support and men's basketball alum Ron Wilson '79.
• Millersville has not opened a season at home since that 2015 loss to Claflin, and Saturday marks just the second time Millersville has started a season at home since 2012. Home and road distinctions are available back to the 1983-84 season, and since then, Millersville is 15-6 in openers at home. The last three losses have all come by one point. 
• Saturday marks Millersville’s first game in Pucillo since March 2, 2020--a span of 20 months. Millersville went 11-3 at home in 2019-20, and of those three losses, one came on a buzzer-beater, one came in double overtime and the other was against PSAC East champ Shippensburg. Millersville averaged 83.8 points per game and shot 48% from the field and 37.2% from three in home games in 2019-20. The Marauders outscored opponents by 9.4 points per game. 

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

• Millersville returns four All-PSAC East honorees and eight players with starting experience in 2021-22. Khari Williams, James Sullivan and Caden Najdawi were All-PSAC East Second Team selections in 2019-20, and Jaden Faulkner was a second team pick as a freshman in 2018-19. Faulkner played just five full games in 2019-20 before suffering a season-ending injury, but through those five games he was averaging 23.6 points and 7.0 assists per game. Additionally, Justin Nwosu returns with 56 career starts, and he led the 2019-20 team in scoring against PSAC opponents at 14.7 per game. The last time Millersville had even three All-PSAC East performers returning was in 1985-86, and that team went 24-6 and won the PSAC East. 
• Williams scored his 1,000th career point in Millersville’s playoff game at Shippensburg to end 2020. Several other Marauders are closing in on that milestone. Sullivan needs 83 points and Najdawi needs 78. Further off, but within range, Nwosu needs 310, and he’s scored more than that in each of his first two seasons at Millersville. Faulkner enters the season with 521 points and would need to average 17.1 points per game to score his 1,000th point by the end of the regular season. 
   

SCOUTING THE BOBCATS

• Frostburg State is in its third season since transitioning to from the Division III to Division II ranks. As a member of the Mountain East Conference (MEC), Frostburg State went 10-18 in 2019-20 and 4-12 in the COVID-19 abbreviated 2020-21 season. 
• Frostburg State was outscored 95.8-79.1 last season, but all four wins came against conference opponents. Agyei Edwards is the top returning scorer. He led the Bobcats with 19.6 points per game while shooting 48.2% from the field and 38.7% from three. Millersville fans may remember Edwards as he got his start at Millersville back in 2016-17. He played in 17 games for Millersville as a freshman. 
• Frostburg State brings back eight players who started at least six games last season. That group includes assist eader Jaylon Johnson and Canaan Bartley, who averaged 16.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. He’s especially dangerous from three as he connected on 40.5% of his shots. 
  Coach Sean Brown is entering his fourth season.
   

SCOUTING THE PANTHERS

• Like most teams, Claflin did not have a season in 2020-21. The last time the Panthers were on the court, they went 15-16 in their second season as members of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA). They made a deep run in the CIAA Tournament, pushing to the semifinals before a close 58-56 loss to eventual champ Winston-Salem State.  While the Panthers have been under .500 in each of the previous two seasons, they went 26-7, won the SIAC Tournament and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2017-18. 
• Dr. Ricky Jackson has led the Claflin program since 2013 and at one point won at least 16 games in five-straight seasons.This isn’t Coach Jackson’s first trip to Millersville. In 2015-16, he brought his team to Pucillo and won 66-65 on a free throw with one second remaining. 
• Graduate students Donnell Frayer Jr., Romero Hill and Noah Jenkins extended their academic careers to continue playing basketball for Claflin. They are among the few familiar faces from 2019-20. Frayer Jr. is the top returning scorer. He averaged 8.7 points per game that season and scored 20 in the CIAA quarterfinals. Romero Hill averaged 5.1 points and 2.1 assists per game. 
• Claflin was voted to finish seventh in the CIAA. 

THE LAST TIME OUT

• Millersville: Shippensburg 69, Millersville 66 (March 4, 2020) - acing the PSAC East champ on the road and down 16 points, Millersville scratched and clawed its way back to within a point in the final seconds. But Shippensburg's clutch free throw shooting was enough to hold off the upstart Marauders 69-66. Millersville out-scored Shippensburg 46-36 in the second half, overcoming an opening 20 minutes in which it scored 20 points on 24.1 percent shooting and was out-rebounded 32-20.
   

SERIES HISTORY

• Saturday marks the first-ever meeting between Millersville and Frostburg State while Millersville and Claflin met once before--the 2015 season opener that the Panthers won 66-65. 
• The Last Meeting - Claflin 66, Millersville 65 (Nov. 14, 2015): With possession in the final seconds of the game, Patrell Rogers of Claflin drove from the top of the key and earned a trip to the free throw line where he sunk his second attempt to give the Panthers the 66-65 victory. The Marauders received 14 points, six rebounds, and three steals from Shawn Williams, but Millersville was unable to overcome a cold shooting night. Millersville shot 30.5% from the field.