Marauders close Ron Wilson Classic unbeaten with win over Winston-Salem State

Saturday, November 14

Millersville, PA

2:00 PM

Millersville University

2-1,0-0PSAC

Winston-Salem State

1-1,0-0CIAA

Team	1	2	F
Winston-Salem	28	36	64
Millersville	36	43	79

Photo by: Kaya Wagner 2026

11/14/2026 5:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Ethan Hulsey, Director of Athletic Communications

MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - Five Millersville players scored in double figures as the Marauders polished off the Ron Wilson '79 Classic with a 79-64 win over Winston-Salem State Saturday afternoon in Pucillo Gymnasium.

Jase Holland compiled his second consecutive double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds while also swatting two shots. Carnell Henderson added 15 points, including three 3-pointers in the second half that sparked Millersville's offense. Brandon Russell added 14 points, sinking all six of his free throws. Dante Weise totaled 11 points, four assists and two steals, and Veron Talla totaled 10 points, four rebounds and two blocks. The Marauders went 2-0 on the weekend to improve to 8-1 all-time in the Ron Wilson '79 Classic. While Friday's win came against D'Youville's full-court press and physical man-to-man defense, the Marauders adjusted to beat Winston-Salem's 2-3 zone.

"It is huge to get early season experience against two totally different styles and have a lot of success against both," said Millersville head coach Casey Stitzel. "It was unbelievable opportunity for us to bounce back from Monday. Today, I thought we were a little shaky against the zone at the start. Honestly, I'll take that one. It's hard to simulate that zone in practice, especially when it is the second game in two days, and you've spent most of your time preparing for Friday's game. But I thought the last five minutes in the second half is actually what we're capable of defensively. I think the next step for us is can we maintain our defensive energy for 40 minutes, and I think if we can do that, we've got some really talented players. They just have to understand what it takes every possession to be a winning basketball player."

Millersville was flummoxed early, falling behind 6-0 before Stitzel burned his first timeout of the game. The Marauders shot 44.4% from the field and 33.3% from three in the first half and still led 36-28 at the break thanks to a last-second dunk from Holland. Winston-Salem lingered but never caught up. With the score 48-46 with 11 minutes to play, Russell sank two free throws, and Henderson followed with back-to-back jumpers. That's when Millersville started to find holes in the Rams' zone. Henderson drilled a three two minutes later, and another one at the 7:12 mark to push Millersville's lead to double digits. With Henderson heating up, the Rams' were forced to stretch their defense, and that opened the high post and short corner for Talla and Holland, who combined to score on the next four possessions.

"I thought the first half the bigs weren't active enough in the middle and short corner," said Stitzel. "What we tried to get them to understand is we want them to ball screen the zone, and it's almost like football when a team plays zone, trying to find that soft spot. I thought we did a way better job of getting that soft spot and then getting the high-low. Once we got the high low, we were able to skip it opposite for threes. I thought Brandon and Carnell and Dante hit some really, really big shots. I want to give a shout out to our bench. I thought Kasey Fleming, Anthony Purnell, Ethan Benne gave us a huge lift here, and in the first, I thought Kasey's threes really got us going."

Millersville shot 62.5% and made 6 of 9 threes in the second half, but Millersville's defense held the Rams without a field goal for nearly four minutes in that closing stretch as well. Ronald Bridges Jr., who led all scorers with 27 points, carried the Rams for much of the game, but Millersville threw a variety of defenders at him in the final minutes. After his 3-pointer at the 6:07 mark, he missed his final three field goal attempts.

"It's just energy, focus, principles," said Stitzel. "There were a couple of times we got beat on their pin down. We try to go under it. We gotta beat the screen and go over. That's some early season stuff where we're not there yet with taking scout to the game. I think that's us as young players, guys that are new, learning, but I hope by January and February we'll be a lot more fluid when it comes to taking scouts in the game."

Millersville blocked five shots, giving the team 15 in the first three games, and it also totaled nine steals, good for an average of 8.7 per game.

UP NEXT
Millersville travels to Jefferson Wednesday for a 6 p.m., tip.