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EAST STROUDSBURG – The East Stroudsburg University men's basketball team has already authored one of the top seasons in school history and will look to complete the regular season with a win at West Chester on Saturday to lock up a home game in the first round of the PSAC tournament.

The Warriors (22-4, 9-4) can match the 1972-73 team's 23-4 record, the school record for wins in a season, with a victory over the Golden Rams. They enter the weekend in a three-way tie for first in the PSAC East with Mansfield and Cheyney, and a win would guarantee a home game in next Tuesday's quarterfinals.

Mansfield holds the tiebreaker over both schools and would be the PSAC East's top seed with a win at Millersville, while ESU would take over the top spot with a win and a Mansfield loss. Cheyney hosts Shippensburg to finish the regular season and Bloomsburg travels to Kutztown with the fourth playoff spot on the line.

The top seed remaining in the PSAC East after the quarterfinals will host the semifinals and finals on their campus next Friday and Saturday. IUP and Clarion have already secured the top two seeds in the PSAC West.

ESU used a 22-0 run in the second half to pull away from Millersville for a 78-54 win on Wednesday that clinched its fourth playoff spot in the last five years. The Warriors held a 56-35 advantage on the glass, including 13 points and 12 rebounds from junior forward Mike Tobin for his third career double-double, and senior guard Robby Pines had five points, six rebounds and 10 assists.

Pines and Tobin both played key roles in the Warriors' 89-78 win over West Chester in the first meeting on January 30. Pines had a career-high 12 assists and Tobin poured in 15 of his career-high 22 points in the second half and pulled down eight rebounds to help ESU improve to 18-1 overall and 5-1 in the conference.

The Warriors' 20-win season, the sixth in school history, includes a national ranking for six straight weeks before being listed as the first team in the “others receiving votes” column this week. They are ranked fifth in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region, with the top eight schools receiving bids when the field is selected following next weekend's conference tournament.

Pines and fellow senior Andy Heimbach enter this weekend's games within reach of individual milestones. Heimbach holds the career record with 224 three-pointers and has 64 this season, three away from tying the record of 67 set by Juwan Justice in 1999-00.

Pines, the PSAC leader with 165 assists (6.3 per game), can move into fourth for assists in a season with six on Saturday. Pines is also one steal away from moving into fifth on the single season list with 63, and is one of four players ranked in the top 20 in Division II in both assists and steals.

ESU has qualified for the PSAC playoffs four times in eight seasons under head coach Jeff Wilson, who has a career record of 123-94 and is 90-47 (.657) over the past five years. Wilson was an assistant coach under Sal Mentesana from 1986-95 which included ESU's only PSAC championship and NCAA tournament appearance in 1989-90.