Box Score  l  Photo Gallery  l  Watch: Coach Wilson discusses the win  l  Highlights

Related:  PSAC Tournament Central  l  All-PSAC East release (Grant Athlete of the Year, Wilson Coach of the Year)

Game stories: Morning Call (Tom Housenick)  l  Pocono Record (Joe Miegoc)

EAST STROUDSBURG – Sophomore guard Whis Grant, the PSAC East Athlete of the Year, scored 19 of his 21 points in the first half and spearheaded a game-changing 22-0 run, leading defending PSAC champion East Stroudsburg University to its fourth straight PSAC Final Four with a 102-74 win over Mansfield on Tuesday night at Koehler Fieldhouse.

The Warriors (22-5) will face Slippery Rock in the semifinals on Friday at 5:30 p.m. at IUP, which will host the Final Four as the PSAC West's top seed after pulling out an 89-87 (OT) win over Edinboro. Slippery Rock won at Gannon, 62-58 (OT), and West Chester advanced with a 73-62 win over Millersville.

Grant, who was recognized as PSAC East Athlete of the Year earlier on Tuesday, senior forward Terrance King (14 points, 7 rebounds), also a first team pick, and senior forward Duane Johnson (15 points, 6 rebounds), a second team selection, combined for 50 points for the Warriors.

Johnson and King, last year's PSAC Tournament MVP, both played in their 10th career postseason game, the most in school history. They are both one game from tying Todd Painton (117 – 1988-92) for the most games played in an ESU uniform.

Playing in front of a capacity crowd, the Warriors improved to 45-12 at Koehler Fieldhouse over the last four seasons and 11-2 this year. ESU is 82-35 since 2010, the most wins in a four-year stretch in school history.

Head coach Jeff Wilson, the PSAC East Coach of the Year for the second time in four years, watched his team shoot 53.3 percent overall and 59.1 percent (13-for-22) from the three-point line. They also shot a season-best 83.3 percent (25-for-30) at the foul line, held a 44-33 advantage in rebounds, an 18-10 edge in second-chance points and 24-14 margin in points off turnovers.

ESU, the PSAC East regular season champion, got off to a slow start against a Mansfield (10-18) team that had won four straight following a 101-68 win over Bloomsburg in the first round on Saturday night.

The Warriors used a big first-half run to win both of the regular season meetings - a 25-4 stretch in a 93-69 road win on January 16, and a 17-6 spurt to close the half in an 83-58 win on February 16. On Tuesday night, it was more of the same.

Mansfield led 9-2 early and still held a 22-21 advantage at the 10:39 mark of the first half before the Warriors took over.

Senior guard Blair Ramsey, one of five ESU seniors, scored four straight points to start the stretch. King hit two free throws after an offensive rebound and Johnson drilled a three for a quick 9-0 spurt and a 30-22 lead.

Grant scored eight of the next 10, sandwiched around a dunk by King, and sophomore guard Matt Tobin stretched it to 43-22 with a three-point play with 3:42 remaining as the Warriors seized control.

Senior forward Gerald Bridges hit his only shot of the game, a three-pointer for the 100th of his career, with 2:38 left in the first half. Johnson struck again from deep and sophomore forward Lamont Tillery hit the last of ESU's eight first-half three's with 1:22 to play and the Warriors led 54-33 at halftime.

ESU led by at least 20 the rest of the way, stretching it to 31 on a putback by junior forward Zechariah Runkle (six points, seven rebounds) with just under eight minutes to play. The largest lead was 34 (100-66) with just over two minutes remaining.

Grant had his 10th 20-point game of the season and sophomore guard Matt Tobin added 11 points and six assists as starters in the backcourt.

Tillery (eight points, five rebounds), freshman forward Dajon Todmann (eight points, four rebounds), Ramsey (seven points, four assists) and Runkle led a bench effort that produced 38 points.

Joe Bell, an All-PSAC East first team selection as a sophomore, had 16 points and nine rebounds to lead Mansfield. Kevonte McClain had 16 points and Chuck Harper added 11 points for the Mounties.

ESU's 13 three-pointers were a season-high, surpassing 12 triples in a 102-44 win over Bloomsburg last time out (Feb. 27) and a 99-56 win over Shippensburg on Jan. 26.

Grant was 3-for-7, Johnson went 3-for-4, Tillery was 2-for-2 and Tobin went 2-for-4. Bridges and Ramsey both hit their only three-point attempts. ESU entered the postseason ranked 3rd in the PSAC with 6.8 per game, and Grant led in three-point percentage at 40.8.


GAME NOTES
* Grant led the Warriors and was 7th in the PSAC with 17.4 ppg during the regular season. He was the fourth sophomore to be named Athlete of the Year in either the PSAC East or PSAC West (since 1988).
* Grant was the top scorer on last year's PSAC championship team with 13.9 ppg.

* The Warriors are pursuing their 3rd PSAC championship in school history. They won in 1990, with Jeff Wilson an assistant coach under Sal Mentesana, and 2012.
* ESU is the PSAC East regular season champion for the 3rd time in school history - joining its teams in 1992 and 2010.

* ESU and IUP are the 8th and 9th schools to make four straight PSAC Final Fours in the last 30 years. Edinboro had done it most recently, from 2005-08.
* Other schools to make four straight are Bloomsburg (1981-84), Lock Haven (1987-90), IUP (1993-96), California (1992-97 - 6 straight), West Chester (1998-01), and Bloomsburg (1998-02 - 5 straight).

* ESU is trying to become the third team to repeat as PSAC champion in the last 30 years – following IUP (2010-11) and Edinboro (2005-06).

* Three of this year's Final Four repeated from last year - ESU, West Chester and IUP, who will meet in the semifinals for the second straight year. Slippery Rock replaced Mercyhurst as the other PSAC West representative this season.

* ESU's 22 wins are the third-most in school history. The Warriors won 24 games in 2009-10 and 23 in 1972-73.

* The Warriors played their first home playoff game since hosting the 2010 Final Four.
* They won last year's PSAC title with three wins away from home – 99-91 (OT) at Kutztown in the quarterfinals, 66-58 vs. Mercyhurst in the semifinals and 90-85 at West Chester in the championship game.

* ESU is 3-1 in away games and 1-0 in neutral site games in the PSAC Tournament over the last 4 seasons. The Warriors are 6-2 overall in reaching four straight Final Fours.

* ESU won 84-72 at Slippery Rock, its semifinal opponent, on January 11 behind 28 points from Grant, who had 23 of them in the second half. That was the 4th game of ESU's school record-tying 14-game winning streak. (Recap)

* ESU is ranked No. 19 in this week's NABC Division II Coaches Poll, up one spot from last week. The Warriors have been ranked for six straight weeks, tied for the longest stretch in school history (during the 2009-10 season). They were ranked as high as No. 9 on February 12.

* ESU was No. 3 in last week's NCAA Division II Atlantic Region rankings (a new set will be released Wednesday). The top eight schools will be selected to the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.