PREVIEW: PSAC East on the line as Marauders and Golden Rams renew rivalry

Wednesday, February 25

Millersville, PA

7:30 PM

Millersville University

West Chester

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PREVIEW: PSAC East on the line as Marauders and Golden Rams renew rivalry

2/24/2026 11:53:00 AM | Men's Basketball

By: Ethan Hulsey, Director of Athletic Communications

Countdown to Gameday

Millersville Men's Basketball

Men's Basketball

vs West Chester

Feb 25, 2026 at 7:30 PM

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ABOUT THE GAME

Regular season games don’t get any bigger than this. Millersville and West Chester, two longtime rivals, meet in Pucillo Gymnasium Wednesday night with major postseason implications on the line. Both teams can clinch a share of the PSAC East with a win. There are four teams within a game of first place and while West Chester, Shepherd and East Stroudsburg have two games remaining, Wednesday is Millersville’s final regular season game. A win over West Chester and a West Chester win over East Stroudsburg Saturday would give Millersville the No. 1 seed in the PSAC Tournament. West Chester controls its own fate. Closing the season with two wins would give it sole possession of the PSAC East title. Wednesday is also Senior Day for Saraj Ali, Malcolm Dread, Aamir Hurst, E.J. Matthews-Spratley and Day Waters. That group has logged 304 career starts, four have scored over 1,000 career points. Ali ranks 21st in Millersville history with 1,412 points. Hurst has scored 1,134 points and with 135 career steals, he is four away from cracking the career top 10. Waters ranks 22nd all-time at Millersville with 1,389 points and is eighth, tied with James Sullivan ’22, with 189 career 3-pointers. Matthews-Spratley, in his first season at Millersville, has 1,406 career points.

Too big. Too strong. pic.twitter.com/RfpCNCVOUn
— Millersville Marauders (@VilleMarauders) February 21, 2026

Henderson’s season numbers might not jump off the stat sheet, but since entering the starting lineup on Feb. 2, Millersville is 6-1, holding opponents to 64.3 points per game on 40% shooting. In those seven games, Henderson has a team-leading 12 steals and ranks third on the team with 14 assists.
It’s been defense that has sparked Millersville’s late-season surge. The Marauders have held six consecutive opponents to fewer than 70 points--the longest such run since the 2012-13 team, led by PSAC East Defensive Athlete of the Year Elijah Obade, did it 15 games in a row from Dec. 5-Feb. 2. The Marauders have jumped to the top of the PSAC in field goal percentage defense (.421) and rank second in scoring defense (71.4). Since the PSAC began compiling season stats in 2000-01, no Millersville team has led the conference in field goal percentage defense. Millersville has shot a higher field goal percentage than its opponent in 23 of 27 games, going 18-5. With that kind of defensive effort, the magic number for Millersville has been 80 points. Millersville is 9-0 against the PSAC and has won 11 consecutive games when scoring 80 or more points.
On Monday, Cesar Tchilombo became the fourth different Marauder named the PSAC East Defensive Athlete of the Week this season, joining Hurst, Henderson and Dante Weise. Tchilombo, who now ranks fourth in the PSAC in blocked shots and seventh in rebounding, averaged 9.5 rebounds, 3.5 blocks and 1.5 steals in Millersville’s two road wins.
Waters, ranking third in the PSAC in scoring at 19.5 points per game, has 13 20-point games--the most by a Marauder in the regular season since Reggie Bates in 2007-08.

SERIES HISTORY

It is fitting that a game with so much on the line is played between Millersville and West Chester. Since the rivalry began in the 1903-04 season, the teams have played 214 times with both teams winning 107 games each. Since the start of PSAC divisional play in 1983-84, the series is dead-even at 41-41. Millersville has had its share of success in recent years, winning nine of 12 since the 2019-20 season and five of the last six match-ups. Millersville has won six in a row inside Pucillo Gymnasium with West Chester’s last win coming in 2018-19. Since 1983-84, Millersville is 27-12 at home against West Chester. The teams’ first meeting of the season on Feb. 2 was a thriller that resulted in an 82-75 win for the Marauders. Millersville scored 49 first-half points with 10 3-pointers and led by 15 at the break, but West Chester rallied and trailing 76-75 with fewer than 10 seconds remaining, missed a fastbreak layup. Carnell Henderson led Millersville with 16 points.