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Recaps - Pocono Record / Morning Call

PSAC Blog (updated Sat. PM) - Andy Heimbach

EAST STROUDSBURG – East Stroudsburg University battled back from a nine-point second half deficit to tie the game at 63-all with 2:19 left, but Thomas Young put No. 5 IUP ahead with two free throws with 41 seconds left and the Crimson Hawks advanced to the PSAC championship game with a 67-63 win on Friday night at Koehler Fieldhouse.

IUP will face Kutztown in the title game on Saturday night at 7 p.m. The Golden Bears won their semifinal match-up with Clarion, 85-79, and held on after the Golden Eagles trimmed a 17-point lead to one late in the second half. The PSAC's 50th men's basketball champion will be crowned on Saturday night as ESU is hosting the Final Four for the first time in school history.

Young led IUP with 23 points, Ashton Smith scored 17 and Darryl Webb had 16 points and 11 rebounds as the Crimson Hawks improved to 27-2 and will look for their fourth PSAC championship since 2000.

Senior guard Robby Pines had 11 points, eight assists, six rebounds and three steals and moved into second in single-season assists in school history with 187, passing Mike DelGrosso (1990-91) and Kevin Morrissey (1972-73) with 184 each. He also moved into sixth in career assists (304) and into the top 10 with 121 steals and is in the top 10 in Division II with 6.4 assists per game this season.

Junior guard Micah Covert scored 11 points to join Pines in double figures for the Warriors (24-5), who were playing in the PSAC semifinals for the fourth time in school history. Junior forward Mike Tobin had eight points and seven rebounds and freshman forward Marcus Brown had eight points and five boards off the bench.

ESU is still alive for an at-large bid in the Atlantic Region and is fifth in this week's rankings, with the top eight teams, not including any automatic bid (conference champion) teams not in the top eight, selected for the NCAA tournament field. The Atlantic Region is comprised of the PSAC, West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) and Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA).

The announcement of the field of 64 for the NCAA Division II Championships will be made on Sunday night at approximately 9:30 p.m. on ncaasports.com.

IUP led 53-44 with just over 10 minutes left before the Warriors began their march back. They scored the next four points to get it down to five, then made another push to pull within 57-55 on the only three-pointer of the game by senior guard Andy Heimbach, ESU's leading scorer, with 6:45 to go. Heimbach scored 20 points and was 6-for-12 from the three-point line in ESU's 76-65 win over Cheyney in the quarterfinals on Tuesday night.

IUP answered with the next four points on a pair of buckets by Smith and the Crimson Hawks led 63-57 with 3:29 showing before Brown and junior guard Mike DeMarco (nine points) made a pair of free throws to close the margin to two. Tobin had a steal in the backcourt of IUP's ensuing possession and the Warriors tied the game when Heimbach grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed three and tipped the ball to King, who finished with a dunk to force the game's eighth tie.

The Warriors had a couple of cracks at the go-ahead basket before Young was fouled and made both free throws in the final minute. ESU advanced the ball to the front court and called timeout with 32 seconds left, but DeMarco was whistled for an offensive foul while driving down the lane with 21 seconds remaining and the Warriors were forced to foul.

Smith sank a pair of free throws to extend the IUP lead to four with 12 seconds left, and ESU's final two three-pointers wouldn't go down as the Crimson Hawks advanced.

The semifinal appearance was the first for ESU since making three straight trips to the PSAC's final four from 1990-92, including the only PSAC championship in school history during the 1989-90 season. That squad also made the only NCAA tournament appearance in school history and could be joined by the 2009-10 Warriors on Sunday.