ABOUT THE GAME

• Millersville men’s basketball is back in action Wednesday after a much-deserved weekend off that followed a three-game stretch against three of the top four teams in the PSAC East--a stretch in which the Marauders went 2-1 with a road win at West Chester and a win over Lock Haven. Millersville went 8-1 in the month of January with the lone blemish being a road loss to nationally ranked East Stroudsburg. The Marauders have won nine of their last 10 games and seven in a row at home. Millersville has already clinched a PSAC Tournament berth for the sixth consecutive season but have loftier goals, now sitting 1 1/2 games out of first place with one game against all eight PSAC East opponents remaining. Millersville was voted No. 5 in this week’s D2CSC Atlantic Region Poll, which is the team’s highest ranking of the season. InkBlot Sports also has the Marauders seeded No. 5 in the region.  

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

• Millersville is in the midst of its most impressive and efficient offensive season in decades. The Marauders are currently averaging 80.6 points per game, and no Millersville has averaged more than 80 points per game in a season since the PSAC Championship-winning team of 2006-07 averaged 81.8. The Marauders current 48.7% field goal percentage is the best by a team since a 49.8% season in 1991-92. Millersville has scored at least 82 points and shot better than 50% from the field in four of the last five games. The Marauders have topped 86 points nine times already--the most by a Millersville team since 1994-95. Millersville ranks fourth in the PSAC in scoring offense and third in shooting percentage. No Millersville team has ranked in the top four in the PSAC in scoring since the 2006-07 finished the season No. 1. Millersville is 8-0 when shooting better than 50% from the field and hit 56.1% of shots in the first meeting with Shippensburg.  
• Drew Stover’s .689 field goal percentage ranks third in all of Division II, and he continues to track toward a single-season program record. John Fox’s .642 has stood since 1985. No Marauder has shot over 60% from the field for a season since 2009.
• Since scoring 20 points with 11 rebounds and eight assists against Shippensburg on Jan. 10, Jaden Faulkner has scored 20 or more points four times in eight games and has scored at least 17 in seven of the eight. Even with a three-point, 0 for 10 performance at Shepherd included, Faulkner has averaged 17.8 points on 51.1% shooting in that eight-game stretch. He has also knocked down 45 of his last 55 free throw attempts (81.8%). With two more points, Faulkner will move up to 25th in career scoring. He is already fifth in assists, seventh in free throws made and with 135 steals, he sits just three outside the top 10. With his next field goal, he enters into elite Marauder company with Mike Monroe ’91, Andrew Marshall ’87, and Charlie Parker ’08 as the only players with 1,300 points, 400 assists and 130 steals. Faulkner has played 11 fewer games than any other player in that group.
   

SCOUTING THE RAIDERS

• Shippensburg snapped a nine-game skid with back-to-back wins over Cheyney and Bloomsburg--both wins coming at home. The Raiders are 1-9 on the road, and have not scored more than 77 points in any road game. Shippensburg scored 116 and 88 in their two recent wins, out-rebounding Cheyney by 23 and Bloomsburg by 37. Shippensburg ranks second in the PSAC in rebounds per game but 17th in rebounding margin (-4.5). 
   

SERIES HISTORY

• Millersville trailed 39-35 at the half on Jan. 10 but scored 58 points in the second to win by 10. Millersville’s recent four-game winning streak over the Raiders ended a run of seven straight wins by Ship. Five wins in a row would be Millersville’s longest streak in the series since taking five in a row from 1998-2000. Prior to scoring 93 on Jan. 10, Millersville had not scored more than 67 in its last seven games against the Raiders.