Live Stats: Women (6 p.m.) / Men (8 p.m.)

EAST STROUDSBURG – Last year's PSAC East men's basketball co-champions collide for the second time this season when East Stroudsburg University hosts Mansfield in an important divisional match-up in the second game of a doubleheader on Wednesday night at Koehler Fieldhouse.

The women's game between the Warriors and Mounties, slated for a 6 p.m. tip-off, opens the night and kicks off a stretch of four home games for ESU over the final six games of the regular season.

ESU (11-9, 4-4), pegged as the PSAC East preseason favorite, can move into a tie for second place in the conference standings with a win over Mansfield (13-7, 5-3) on Wednesday night. Kutztown (13-7, 6-2) leads the division but saw its advantage cut to one game with an 87-84 home loss to Shippensburg on Sunday. All eight teams in the PSAC East are within one game of a playoff spot entering the final three weeks.

Mansfield took the first meeting on the men's side, 76-70, on January 19 in the northern tier of Pennsylvania and make the return trip to Koehler Fieldhouse, where the Warriors have won five straight over the Mounties since 2005-06. ESU beat Mansfield in overtime, 67-65, last season and is 8-1 at home this year.

The Mounties led from start to finish in their win last month at Decker Gymnasium, building a 17-point second-half lead before the Warriors got back within six in the final two minutes. Derrison Anthony, one of the most improved players in the PSAC, had 20 points and 14 rebounds for the Mounties and is averaging 13.3 points and 7.3 rebounds. Yuseff Carr, a returning first team All-PSAC East pick, averages 14.3 points and 6.7 rebounds, below his 16.9 ppg and 8.5 rpg from a year ago, but top three-point shooter Tony Fannick has picked up some of the scoring slack with 12.3 points per game.

Sophomore forward Duane Johnson has emerged as the Warriors' top player during the PSAC East schedule, averaging 15.8 points and shooting 57.7 percent from the field. He scored a career-high 25 points in an overtime loss at Bloomsburg last Thursday, had 20 points in a win at West Chester on January 15 and has shot at least 50 percent in six straight games.

Johnson and classmate Terrance King (10.4 ppg, 4.8 rpg) came of age during last year's school record 24-6 season, when King was the PSAC East Freshman of the Year and Johnson claimed three Freshman of the Week honors. Johnson has scored 471 points and King has 470 points through the first 50 games of their careers, a milestone they hit in Saturday's 75-72 win at Cheyney.

Freshman guard Will Brown (8.3 ppg) has provided a spark off the bench, scoring 20 points including the go-ahead three-pointer the victory at Cheyney, and had a 24-game last month as the Warriors rallied to beat Mercyhurst. The freshman is fourth in the PSAC in three-point percentage (47.0, 31-66) and has hit eight three-pointers in the final minute of games.

Senior forward Mike Tobin has also been steady all season, ranking second on the team in scoring (10.7 ppg) and first in rebounding (6.3 rpg) while playing a team-high 29 minutes per night. He ranks second in the PSAC with 2.5 steals per game, while King is second in the circuit with 2.1 blocks per game and already has 83 blocks in his career.

Senior guards Mike DeMarco (6.2 ppg) and Micah Covert (8.3 ppg) have been called upon to take over the point guard duties after junior Russell Graham III, a transfer from Division I New Hampshire, was lost due to injury early in the season. DeMarco (62) and Covert (50) rank first and second on the team in assists and ESU is second in the PSAC in assists and third in assist-to-turnover ratio.

In the women's game, junior guard Cyara Woodridge has been a key addition to the Warriors (4-16, 1-7) over the past five games as they try to break a seven-game losing streak since posting a win over Cheyney in their conference opener.

Woodridge is averaging 15.2 points and shooting 55.2 percent from the field since playing just four minutes (in the season opener) in ESU's first 15 games. The junior has hit double figures in all five games since returning from injury, including a career-high 20 vs. Shippensburg and 19 at Bloomsburg, and was 8-for-11 from the floor in both games.

Point guard Andrea Veres has earned four of the last six PSAC East Freshman of the Week awards and has scored 11.1 points per game in conference action, including five games in double figures. She leads PSAC freshmen in free throw percentage and is third in scoring (10.1 ppg), assists and steals while playing more than 32 minutes per game.

Redshirt junior forward Brittany McClain scored a career-high 25 points in ESU's 74-62 loss at Mansfield in their first meeting this year. The Warriors were 13-for-21 from the three-point line, their most made three's in a game since November 2004, but couldn't keep Mallory Moore (26 points, 15 rebounds) off the glass or Nicole Pender (16 points, 11 assists) out of the lane as the Mounties posted their only conference win of the season.

Moore is in the top 10 in the PSAC in scoring (15.1 ppg) and rebounding (8.2 rpg) and Pender is second in the conference with 5.0 assists per game. Both players rank in the top four in the PSAC in steals, and both Mansfield (6-14, 1-7) and ESU commit and force more than 20 turnovers per night.

After Wednesday's game, the Warriors host West Chester on Saturday, travel to Millersville next Wednesday and host Kutztown the following Saturday. The final week of February brings Bloomsburg to Koehler Fieldhouse on Wednesday before a trip to Shippensburg to wrap up the conference and regular season schedule.

Saturday's game vs. West Chester will be televised live on Blue Ridge TV-13 and available online, both live and archived, on esuwarriors.com. ESU's wrestling match on Saturday night vs. Delaware Valley will also be broadcast as part of a tripleheader at Koehler Fieldhouse.