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Wednesday: All-PSAC East release - Johnson, King, Graham
Thursday: Pocono Record: ESU still alive thanks to special night by King

EAST STROUDSBURG – East Stroudsburg University will make its third straight trip to the PSAC Final Four and look for the second championship game appearance in school history when the Warriors tip-off with Mercyhurst in the semifinals on Friday at 5:30 p.m. at Hollinger Fieldhouse at West Chester.

The Warriors (18-11), who advanced with a 99-91 (OT) win at Kutztown on Tuesday night, take on Mercyhurst for just the fifth time, and the first time in postseason action. The Lakers (18-9), in their fourth season in the PSAC, moved on with a 77-69 win over Slippery Rock and had a 70-65 home win over ESU on December 4.

In the other semifinal, West Chester (18-9) won 83-70 at Bloomsburg for its ninth straight win and 12th in its last 13 games to earn the right to host the tournament with both of the lower seeds in the PSAC East advancing. IUP (23-4), the No. 1 seed in the PSAC West, had a 74-70 win over California. The Crimson Hawks, the two-time defending champion, join ESU as the only two schools to make the Final Four the last three years.

The winners will meet on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the PSAC championship game, with the champion claiming the PSAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament.

Only two-day passes will be sold for this weekend's tournament – $14 for adults and $5 for children for access to all three games. Saturday-only tickets are $8 for adults and $3 for children. Complimentary pass lists will not be used in accordance with PSAC policy, but PSAC passes will be honored. Students from PSAC member institutions will be admitted free with a valid school ID. Overflow parking will be available in the Sharpless Street garage.

The Warriors, playing their seventh postseason game in the last three years under head coach Jeff Wilson, improved to 4-0 in postseason overtime games on Tuesday night at Kutztown and will aim to join the 1990 PSAC championship team as the only PSAC finalists in program history. ESU fell to IUP in the semifinals the last two seasons.

Wilson can move into sole possession of second in career wins at ESU with his 160th victory, which would be a footnote to an accomplishment that has been building for Wilson's 10 seasons. Wilson was the top assistant on the 1990 team which had a three-point home win over Cheyney, an overtime win (103-102) at Slippery Rock and double-overtime (108-102) over Millersville to claim the PSAC title 22 years ago.

The Warriors are led by junior forwards Duane Johnson and Terrance King and senior guard Russell Graham III, who were all named to the All-PSAC East team on Wednesday, along with freshman guard Whis Grant, their top scorer.

Grant (14.1 points per game), Graham (12.6), King (12.5) and Johnson (12.3) have accounted for more than 60 percent of ESU's 79.8 points per game, second-most in the PSAC, and lead a balanced effort that has seven players averaging at least 6.0 points per game.

Johnson, named to the All-PSAC East first team, is second on the squad with 6.1 rebounds per game and is in the top three in assists (72), blocks (23) and steals (38). One of the top defensive players in the conference, he also went over the 900-career point mark at Kutztown, along with King. He was second team All-PSAC East as a sophomore as the Warriors' top scorer with 12.4 ppg and has played a pivotal role on all three PSAC semifinal teams.

Graham runs the offense, with 161 assists (5.8 per game), including 30 over the last four games. He has also scored in double figures in 20 of the last 22 games and tied his career-highs with 19 points and nine assists in the quarterfinal win at Kutztown. Graham is a key to the Warriors' defensive pressure and ranks in the PSAC's top 10 with 45 steals (1.6 per game).

King scored a career-high 32 points, including 15 in the second half and ESU's first five in overtime, and forced the extra session with a putback and three-point play with 6.2 seconds left. He also grabbed 10 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season and is averaging 20.8 points and 8.5 rebounds over the last four games. Defensively, King has blocked at least 40 shots for three straight years and his 138 career blocks are third-most in school history.

Grant has produced 10 games of at least 18 points during a phenomenal freshman season, including 19 in ESU's first meeting with Mercyhurst this year. He has set ESU freshman records for three-pointers (52), free throws made (96) and steals (39) and ranks second in points (394) and assists (72). The 6-0 guard has scored in double figures in 23 of the 28 games he has played this season after a post-grad year at St. Thomas More (Conn.), which won the national prep championship last year.

Senior forward Eric Bryan joins Johnson and King as a fixture of the Warriors' recent success. He is averaging 6.4 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, including seven points and four rebounds at Kutztown in his return after missing the previous two games due to injury. Bryan has played in 110 career games, seventh-most in school history. He will be just the fifth player in program history to play in at least seven postseason games.

Junior guard/forward Gerald Bridges, Jr. and freshman guard Matt Tobin have also figured prominently into the Warriors' season. Bridges is playing more than 20 minutes per game behind Johnson and Bryan and averaging 6.7 points and 4.4 rebounds per game while knocking down 39 three-pointers at a rate of 36.8 percent.

Tobin, the younger brother of former All-PSAC East forward Mike Tobin, is scoring 8.1 points per game and shooting 38.5 percent (35-for-91) from the three-point line in 29 games, including three starts. He scored 28 points and knocked down six three's in his first career start at Cheyney and has come off the bench for eight other double-figure games.

SCOUTING MERCYHURST

The Lakers, the No. 2 seed in the PSAC West, had just one All-PSAC West selection in sophomore guard Matt Lee but field a formidable rotation.

The squad is led by junior forward Luis Leao, a first team All-PSAC West choice last year who has played in just 14 games due to injury. He is averaging 14.9 points and 5.0 rebounds per game after posting 17.5 points and 8.3 rebounds last season. Leao has four 20-point games and had 18 points in Mercyhurst's 77-69 win over Slippery Rock on Tuesday. His scoring average is pulled down by three four-point games, including the first match-up with ESU in his second game of the season.

Lee is averaging 15.9 points per game and has seven 20-point games, including 32 against Lock Haven in the final game of the regular season. He scored 19 points in the quarterfinals against Slippery Rock. Lee (69) and sophomore Andrew Rickard (53) have combined for more than half of Mercyhurst's 201 three-pointers and are shooting 38.0 percent between them. Rickard is averaging 10.7 per game, mostly off the bench, and tied his season-high with 24 points in the first meeting, including a 5-for-5 mark from long range.

Senior Bill Weaver gives Mercyhurst a fourth double-figure scorer with 11.6 points and 5.1 rebounds per game and has a team-high 28 blocked shots. The Lakers' other top scorers include redshirt junior guard Steven Coleman (8.9 ppg) and freshman guard Callon Dailey (8.0 ppg).

Senior point guard Jamal Turner is among the PSAC leaders in assists (124) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.0) and scores 2.3 points per game in 27 starts for the Lakers. Sophomore guard Jonathan Ouegnin has made 16 starts and averages 5.0 points and 4.2 rebounds per game, and redshirt sophomore center Paul Bilbo made 13 starts in Leao's absence and posts 4.2 points and 3.0 rebounds per game.

Mercyhurst was 3-4 in its last seven games entering the PSAC Tournament after a six-game winning streak through most of January. The Lakers were 6-2 against the PSAC East, including 4-0 against the division's top four teams in Kutztown, Bloomsburg, West Chester and ESU.

IUP-WEST CHESTER

IUP, which has won the last two PSAC championships, lost All-American Darrell Webb off last year's team but didn't miss a beat, going 23-4 overall and 19-3 against the PSAC. The Crimson Hawks' only conference losses were 66-64 vs. Bloomsburg, 65-54 at California, and 71-47 at Mercyhurst.

Senior guard Ashton Smith is the third straight Crimson Hawk to win the PSAC West Player of the Year, along with Webb and guard Thomas Young, and leads the division with 18.7 points per game. He was a repeat selection to the All-PSAC West first team. Julian Sanders, a second team selection last season, moved up to the first team and is scoring 17.4 points per game with 83 three-pointers.

West Chester has been on a tear since a 94-82 loss at ESU on January 28. The Golden Rams have won their last nine games, including Tuesday's quarterfinal victory at Bloomsburg, for their first PSAC Tournament victory since 2006.

Senior forward Lance McDowell and junior guard Jon Breeden were named to the All-PSAC East first team as the Golden Rams rebounded from a 3-5 start against the West in crossover action to post an 11-3 record in Eastern division play.

West Chester has five double-figure scorers, led by McDowell (16.3 ppg, 7.9 rpg) and Breeden (13.1 ppg, 4.1 apg). Jaleel Mack, Carl Johnson, Corey Blake and Khalif Foster also contribute to a balanced scoring effort.

POSTSEASON NOTES

* ESU, IUP and Kutztown are the only schools to make the PSAC tournament in six of the last seven years. Kutztown has qualified all seven seasons since 2005-06 and IUP missed the tournament in 2006-07. ESU finished one game out of a playoff spot in 2008-09.

* The Warriors will aim to become the third No. 4 seed to make the PSAC championship game since 1996, when the current eight-team format was finalized. Slippery Rock advanced in 2000 and Kutztown made the final in 2010.

* Shippensburg (1991) and California (1985) are the only lowest-seeded teams to win the title since 1981. Shippensburg was a No. 4 seed and California was a No. 3 seed.

* ESU is 2-2 all-time against Mercyhurst and 1-1 under Wilson. The Warriors overcame an 11-point deficit in the final minute in an 88-86 (OT) win on January 4, 2011 at Koehler Fieldhouse in the first meeting before this year's 70-65 loss at Mercyhurst.

* In the two previous meetings, ESU won 73-46 in a tournament in 1990 and Mercyhurst won a 100-90 (2OT) game in 1993.

* The Warriors are 11-10 against West Chester in 10 seasons under Wilson. They won five straight meetings, including a 94-82 win on January 28, before West Chester won 71-65 in the second meeting two weeks ago at Hollinger Fieldhouse.

* West Chester is 2-1 in three postseason meetings with ESU. The Warriors won 70-64 in the quarterfinals in 1991 at Koehler Fieldhouse, and West Chester won 80-58 in 1998 and 88-76 in 2006 at Hollinger Fieldhouse.

* ESU is 5-13 against IUP and 3-7 in the last 10 seasons. The Crimson Hawks have won four straight in the series, including semifinal victories the last two years – 67-63 in 2010 and 81-72 in 2011. The Warriors had won the previous three games in the series. IUP also had an 86-76 win in the quarterfinals in 1996 and is 3-0 vs. ESU in postseason games.

* The Warriors have an all-time record of 7-10 in the PSAC Tournament and are 1-2 in neutral site competition. The victory came in the PSAC championship game in 1990, 108-102 (2OT) over Millersville.