SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. - After slogging through the final five minutes of the first half with just three points scored, Millersville poured in 58 points on 60.5% shooting in the final 20 minutes, running away with a 93-83 PSAC East road win over Shippensburg.
Matt Dade scored a game-high 25 points, and
Jaden Faulkner flirted with a triple-double, totaling 20 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.
Jahme Ested knocked down 7-of-9 shots and scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half.
Millersville, now 10-3 overall and 5-2 in PSAC play, scored its fourth consecutive win over Shippensburg while scoring its most points at Heiges Fieldhouse since 1984. Millersville had scored more than 67 total points just once in the previous 10 games against Shippensburg. But rebounding and winning 50-50 balls in the second half made a significant impact on the scoreboard during Millersville's second-half run.
"I didn't think we were ready to start the game off," said Millersville head coach
Casey Stitzel. "We started the game taking some bad shots and it's been a while since someone played us half-court man. It took us some time to get used to that. But in the second half the energy and ball movement got a lot better. Drew (Stover) and Jaden did a great job leading the way on the offensive glass, and we got some great minutes from
J.D. Gross and
Jacob Aryee when we got into foul trouble."
Shippensburg came into the game ranked last in the PSAC in rebounding margin, and Millersville took full advantage of that Raiders' weakness. The Marauders won the rebounding battle 47-25, scoring 15 second-chance points to Shippensburg's six. Faulkner grabbed 10 of his 11 rebounds in the second half, and four of them came on the offensive end.
Drew Stover also grabbed four offensive rebounds.
Millersville led by as many as 10 points in the first half, but over the last five minutes, the only field goal was a Dade lay-up with 37 seconds remaining. Shippensburg surged in front 39-35 with a 13-3 run. Millersville scored the first four points of the second half, and Ested's 3-pointer at the 15:17 mark gave the Marauders a 47-44 advantage--a lead it would not relinquish.
With Faulkner, Stover,
Day Waters and
Jordan Nkoa Abessolo all saddled with four fouls, Stitzel turned to
J.D. Gross and
Jacob Aryee down the stretch. Gross scored eight points on 3-of-4 shooting, and Aryee sank all three of his shots for seven points in 10 minutes. His 3-pointer with 5:46 to play was a dagger, putting the Marauders up nine. Gross scored on a fastbreak two minutes later to give Millersville a 12-point lead--its largest lead of the game.
"(Aryee and Gross) keep building confidence in practice and getting important game experience," said Stitzel. "I tell the guys all the time that we are a match-up team where our rotation depends on who has it going, who we are playing and the match-ups we see. What was impressive about Jacob was for him to be ready in big game like that, and that shows growth with maturity and good culture."
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Millersville made 3-of-5 3-pointers in the second half and finished 5-of-12 (.417). However, after sinking at least 80% of their free throws in four of the previous five games, the Marauders shot just 14-for-23 at the line.
- Faulkner registered his second double-double in the last three games and topped 20 points for the fifth time this season. Dade has scored at least 21 points in three of the last four games.
MORE FROM STITZEL
- On the team's play in the second half: "We played in the first half like we did when we went through a bad stretch earlier in the year, but it is a great show of growth and maturity that we could turn it around. That isn't easy to do on the road. The great thing about tonight is that we can continue to learn while getting a PSAC road win, which is always tough. Every game in January and February counts."
GAME NOTES
- Millersville has won three in a row at Shippensburg for the first time since a stretch that spanned from 1987 to 1999.
- Millersville has scored at least 93 points in two of the last three games.
UP NEXT
- Millersville returns home on Saturday, Jan. 13 to take on Bloomsburg at 3 p.m.
