Box Score

MILLERSVILLE – East Stroudsburg University fell into a three-way tie for fourth place in the PSAC East with three games remaining as Millersville pulled out a 76-69 win over the Warriors on Wednesday night at Pucillo Gymnasium.

ESU (12-11, 5-6) held a 39-38 lead at halftime, but Millersville (10-12, 5-6) scored the first seven points of the second half and held off the Warriors down the stretch. Cheyney (15-8, 5-6) is the third team involved in the tie for the division's final playoff spot after an 82-80 loss at division co-leader Kutztown on Wednesday night.

Freshman guard Will Brown scored 17 points and senior forward Mike Tobin (17 points, nine rebounds) had 13 points and six boards after halftime as the Warriors battled back but could never retake the lead after Millersville went ahead 45-39 in the early moments of the second half.

Millersville put four players in double figures and shot 48.3 percent from the field. Bernard Brown had 17 points, nine rebounds and six blocks, Mike Holley and Demond Vance scored 16 points apiece and Jaymes Miller had 13 points and seven boards.

Holley (eight points, five assists) and Brown (12 points) produced for the Marauders in the second half, including a bucket by Brown on an assist from Holley that gave Millersville a 64-60 lead after ESU cut the deficit to two points for the final time on two free throws by Tobin with 4:30 left.

Tobin pulled the Warriors within two on three straight possessions, but the Marauders answered every time and Bernard Brown scored seven straight points to stretch the advantage to 71-62 with 1:42 remaining.

ESU made one final push, getting a driving layup from Will Brown and a steal and layup by sophomore forward Duane Johnson (nine points, five rebounds) to get within five points (71-66) with 1:10 to play. The Warriors forced another steal in the backcourt but couldn't convert, and Holley passed ahead to Miller for a layup at the other end to put the lead out of reach.

Senior guard Micah Covert had nine of his 11 points in the first half as ESU put together a 16-4 run late in the period to take its largest lead of the game, 36-30, with 1:48 remaining. Brown had 10 points in the first half, going 3-for-3 from the three-point line and converting a four-point play to finish the run, before Millersville closed the gap to one at intermission.

Brown was 6-for-9 from the field and 4-for-5 from the three-point line to push his long range accuracy to 50 percent (41-82) with three games left in the regular season. He was third in the conference in three-point percentage entering the night and is two three's away from tying Andy Heimbach's mark of 43 for the most by an ESU freshman.

ESU hosts Kutztown on Saturday in another important game for its conference playoff aspirations. The Warriors fell 85-82 at Kutztown on Jan. 22 and finish the regular season next week vs. Bloomsburg on Wednesday and at Shippensburg on Saturday.

Kutztown shares the PSAC East lead with Mansfield at 8-3, with Bloomsburg two games back at 6-5 and one game clear of the three-way tie for fourth. West Chester (4-7) and Shippensburg (3-8) are still in the race entering the next-to-last Saturday of the season.