Second half offense leads Marauders past Lightning

Tuesday, December 12

Millersville, PA

6:00 PM

Millersville University

6-2,1-1PSAC

Goldey-Beacom

5-5,1-0CACC

Team	1	2	F
Goldey-Beacom	35	47	82
Millersville	34	54	88

Second half offense leads Marauders past Lightning

12/12/2023 9:01:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Connor Glunt, Athletic Communication Graduate Assistant

MILLERSVILLE, Pa. — The Marauders took down the Goldey-Beacom Lightning at Pucillo Gymnasium, using a 10–0 stretch down the run to propel them to an 88–82 victory. Millersville is now 6–2 on the season.

The Lightning offense was hot out of the gate, going on an 11–0 run after Jahme Ested made a three-point shot for the first field goal of the game. After a timeout, the Marauders battled back to even the game and retake the lead with nine minutes left in the half. The offense got contributions from all five starters in the first half, but both teams defenses forced tough looks and turnovers. Five different Marauders recorded a steal in the contest, and Jaden Faulkner led all players with six. Although the Marauders maintained a lead for parts of the first half, their largest lead was just four. The Lightning were able to strike last before the break, going into halftime leading 35–34.

In the second half, both teams shot the ball significantly better, playing an up-tempo pace style of play. Ested had the hot hand to start the second half, scoring the first two field goals of the half and assisting Drew Stover on a three-pointer to put Millersville up three early on. After the Lightning built up an eight-point lead with 12 minutes remaining, Faulkner and Matt Dade started to push back and chip into the Marauders deficit. J.D. Gross and Dylin Borden came off the bench to play some crucial minutes in the second half, with Gross and Faulkner scoring to get the lead down to two, but Goldey-Beacom scored on back-to-back possessions to increase the lead back to seven.

Looking for a spark, C.J. McPherson made his second appearance of his career for the Marauders late in the second half and hit two big three-point shots to take the lead with under four minutes left. Goldey-Beacom forced a steal with a minute and a half left on the clock and converted the fastbreak layup to take the lead, but Millersville controlled play the rest of the way. Faulkner found Dade in the paint on the next possession, who battled through the contact to make the layup and convert the and-one at the free throw line. The next time on offense, it was Faulkner again assisting Dade down low to put Millersville up four with 30 seconds remaining. Gross and Borden both made a pair of free throws to ice the game after coming up with defensive stops, and the Lightning hit a three-point shot on their last possession of the game to make the final score 88–82.

The Marauders will travel for a pair of games in northwest Pennsylvania, with their first stop on Monday, Dec. 18 at 3 p.m. at Edinboro.

GAME NOTES

Faulkner tied his career high with six steals, his most since he had six against Penn State Fayette on Dec. 29, 2018.
McPherson previously made his first appearance for the Marauders against Livingston on Nov. 11, 2023. McPherson did not attempt a shot in that game, but went 2-3 from three-point range against Goldey-Beacom
88 points is the most the Marauder offense has scored this year, as they have eclipsed the 80-point mark four times in eight games.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

After shooting 35.29% from the field and three-point range in the first half, the Marauders shot 60.71% from the field and 40% from distance in the second half, while also making 16-19 free throws.
Millersville had four starters reach double digits in scoring, with Ested leading the team with 17, Faulkner and Dade following with 16 and 15 respectively, and Day Waters chipping in 14.
There were 16 lead changes during the game, including six ties.

POSTGAME REACTION FROM HEAD COACH CASEY STITZEL

Opening thoughts: "I thought, Goldy-Beacom just basically played off of us and dared us to shoot. And that kind of threw us off a little bit. But defensively, I didn't think we followed the scouting report the way we wanted to. But then, when we made our run, kind of like we did against Slippery Rock, we played harder, played smarter and played more together. Guys made nice plays and made nice passes. So we've just got to play better. Right now, we're not playing the complete 40 minutes, but there is some signs of us getting better and figuring out. We've just got to be a little more consistent and just keep working hard, and just keep trying to play harder. We can always play harder, and that's something that has been a staple of our program here the last two years."
On the second half offense: "I think it starts with even though we had 21 turnovers, having 21 assists is big. There were a couple of times in the first half where I thought maybe we weren't making the extra pass. And then unfortunately, when you take bad shots, when you play a quick team, they played a lot of small [lineups], they played four guards, and they were out in transition. I think we just have to be better with that. Better than making the right play, playing off two feet. And when we when we trust our teammates, and everyone's playing with confidence, we're hard to guard. But right now, we're not doing that for 40 minutes, and if we continue to get better with that, that's going to help our offense, it's going to help our defense because we won't be in transition as much and we'll be able to guard in the half court, which is when we're at our best.
On using the bench down the stretch "I thought JD was great with his rebounding. I thought he went and got about two or three rebounds. He made two big foul shots, he had a tip-in he and he had a couple offensive rebounds. Also, I thought Dylin was making some really good plays moving the ball. And I want to give a shout out to one of our freshmen. CJ has been at one of the most talented kids we've had here from a shooting perspective. We're very stubborn when it comes to defense here in this program, and we threw him out there with them daring us to make shots. And I thought he made two huge shots, kind of got us going with that momentum. So now he's earned some more playing time and hopefully we can take that into the weekend.
On the 10-0 run to close the game: "I just think we're playing harder. I think the way we're playing right now, we're doing too much self-sabotage, and then it's allowing teams to get in transition. We just have got to be more solid with certain aspects of basketball, and then we just have to play looser. I just feel like the expectations going into this year, I think a lot of people thought we were going to be very good, and I think guys are playing with a little bit too much baggage on their shoulders rather than just playing free and loose. And that's when we were young last year and no one expected anything out of us. That's how we got 10 out of 11 there to end the season because we were just playing free and loose. So we have to get back to that. I think getting on the road here will be a very good thing. I think getting away from home. Just different scenery, being a hotel, spend some time together, I think will be a good thing for our team."