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Matt Tobin
David Kidwell
Sr. G Matt Tobin had his 5th career double-double with 11 points and 11 assists in ESU's 98-72 win over West Chester on Saturday.

Grant, Tobin Pace Warriors to 98-72 Win over West Chester in PSAC Championship Game Rematch

1/17/2015 12:00:00 AM

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EAST STROUDSBURG - Senior guard Whis Grant scored a season-high 27 points to lead five double-figure scorers, senior guard Matt Tobin had 11 points and 11 assists and East Stroudsburg University notched a historic 98-72 win over West Chester in PSAC East men's basketball on Saturday at Koehler Fieldhouse.

ESU (11-5, 9-3), which maintains a half-game lead in the PSAC East, had its largest margin of victory over West Chester since 1973 and the Warriors' four-year senior class - Grant, Tobin, redshirt senior forward Muhamadou Kaba and senior forward Lamont Tillery - became the winningest class in program history.

ESU improves to 83-26 since the start of the 2011-12 season, winning two of the last three PSAC championships - both with victories over West Chester (90-85 in 2012, 92-80 in 2014). ESU was 20-12 in 2011-12, followed by 22-7 in 2012-13 and set a school record at 30-2 last winter.

The Warriors' seniors surpass the 2009-13 class of Gerald Bridges, Duane Johnson and Terrance King, who were 82-37 over their four years.

ESU's 26-point margin of victory is its largest since an 89-58 win over the Golden Rams during the 1972-73 season.

Sophomore forward Rasheed Moore had 17 points and nine rebounds, junior guard Jamal Nwaniemeka had 14 points and five assists and sophomore forward Steve Harris added 11 points and six boards for the Warriors. Redshirt senior guard Will Brown, who missed the 2012 and 2013 seasons due to injury, had nine points.

Cory Blake scored 25 points, 22 in the second half, and Ben Mingledough had 10 points for West Chester (7-11, 5-7), which has the been the PSAC East regular season runner-up to ESU in both of the last two years.

Tobin had his fifth career double-double and his first of the season, handing out nine of his season-high 11 assists in the second half. He had his seventh career game with 10+ assists and is seven assists from ESU's career record of 467 held by Mike DelGrosso (1987-91).

Grant, a two-time All-American, had his first 20-point game of the season and the 29th of his career for the Warriors. He scored 17 points in the second half - hitting two three-pointers in the first minute of the period - and went over the 1,700-point mark in his career (1,704) late in the contest.

Grant made a career-high six three-pointers one game after setting ESU's school record on Wednesday at Cheyney. Grant has 245 career three's, surpassing the mark of 236 set by Andy Heimbach (2006-10).

Nwaniemeka was coming off a season-high 25-point game in Wednesday's 90-73 win at Cheyney.

Harris had all 11 of his points in the first half, staking the Warriors to a 49-34 halftime lead. It was 19-17 with 10:20 left in the half before ESU extended its lead to as many as 18 points in the final two minutes.

The Warriors pushed their lead to 26 (66-40) less than four minutes into the second half, going on a 17-6 run to put the Golden Rams away. Grant (9) and Nwaniemeka (5) combined for the first 14 points of the half before a Moore three-point play.

ESU led by 14+ points for the final 25 minutes of the contest and held its biggest lead (29, 97-68) with just over a minute remaining.
 
ESU improves to 11-2 against West Chester since the start of the 2009-10 season, and the Warriors are 17-11 against WCU overall under 13th-year head coach Jeff Wilson, who was named the NCAA DII Coach of the Year by two national organizations last spring.

Wilson earned his 224th career win, one from tying legendary Cheyney and Temple head coach John Chaney for 11th in PSAC history. Chaney won 225 games at Cheyney from 1971-82.

ESU, in pursuit of its third straight PSAC East regular season title, is 42-8 in countable PSAC games since the start of the 2012-13 season.

The Warriors push their home record under Wilson to 35-5 in the last three years, including 22-3 in games that count towards the PSAC standings.

ESU hosts Mansfield (7-9, 5-7) on Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Koehler Fieldhouse.


GAME NOTES
* Grant is averaging 18.8 points per game in 9 career games vs. West Chester, his most against any PSAC East school.
* Grant had his 5th career game with 20+ points against WCU on Saturday.
 
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