Box ScoreSHIPPENSBURG - Redshirt senior guard
Will Brown scored 14 points, all in the second half, including the 1,000th of his career, but East Stroudsburg University's rally fell short in a 74-69 loss at Shippensburg in PSAC East men's basketball on Monday night at Heiges Field House.
Brown hit three three-pointers in the final 2:20, the last pulling the Warriors (15-5, 11-5) within 71-69 with 25.2 seconds left, but his game-tying three was just off in the last five seconds.
ESU trailed by 18 points (56-38) at the 10:30 mark of the second half before nearly rallying. The Warriors cut into the deficit with a 12-0 run, capped by a three by Brown, and continuously fought uphill before nearly catching Ship at the end.
Junior forward
Steve Harris had 13 points and 11 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season, senior guard
Jamal Nwaniemeka scored 12, senior forward
Wes Cherry had nine points and six rebounds and redshirt junior guard
Quindell Brice had nine for ESU. Junior forward
Sultan Aminu added seven points.
The Warriors played without their top scorer, junior forward
Rasheed Moore (13.3 ppg), who was injured late in the first half of a 91-84 loss to Bloomsburg on Saturday, which ended a nine-game winning streak.
ESU's deficit was still 10 (69-59) before Brown hit a pair of three's within 15 seconds, getting the Warriors within four with 2:03 left and setting up the finish.
Ship's Tony Ellis missed a pair of free throws with 1:29 left, keeping the score 71-66, and the Warriors got a stop before Brown's three off a scrambled possession made it 71-69 with 25.2 left.
Ellis made the second of two shots at the line for a 72-69 Ship lead with 16.1 seconds left, and after a Warriors timeout, Brown's three-point attempt was just offline. Dustin Sleva made two at the line to seal it with 2.9 seconds remaining.
Justin McArthur scored 15 points to lead Shippensburg (13-7, 10-6). Abe Massaley had 11 points and eight assists and Sleva (eight rebounds) and Tony Ellis both added for the Raiders, who had won seven straight before falling at Bloomsburg and West Chester last week.
Brown (1,002) is the third ESU player to hit 1,000 points this year, joining Moore (1,053) and Nwaniemeka (1,031 collegiate - 1,020 at ESU). They are the first trio of 1,000-point scorers on the same team in program history, and also the first trio to hit the 1,000-point mark in the same season.
He is the 30th 1,000-point scorer in ESU history. Brown ranks third at ESU in career three-pointers (209). He is in his sixth season at ESU, scoring 219 points as a freshman (2010-11) and hitting an ESU freshman record 48 three-pointers. He missed the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons due to injury, returning to average 9.1 points off the bench on ESU's 2013-14 PSAC championship team that went 30-2 and reached the Atlantic Region final. He scored 291 points in 2013-14, 241 in 2014-15 and has 251 this year, his first as a full-time starter.
GAME NOTES* Fr. G
Najee Walls (3 assists) set ESU's freshman record for assists in a season (109). He surpasses Naveen Mohiuddin, who had 108 assists in 2002-03.
* Walls entered the week ranked 1st in the PSAC, 16th in DII and 2nd among DII freshmen with 5.9 assists per game.
* The addition of Moore, Nwaniemeka and Brown to the 1,000-point club gives the Warriors 5 1,000-point scorers on their 2013-14 and 2014-15 teams:
Whis Grant (1,860),
Matt Tobin (1,042), Moore, Nwaneimeka and Brown
* ESU had 5 1,000-point scorers on its 1989-90 PSAC championship team:
Jonathan Roberts (senior), Ed Urie (5th-year senior), Keith Fisher (junior - transfer from Mansfield), Todd Painton (sophomore) and Lonnie White (freshman)
* Monday night's game was rescheduled from the winter weather event that hit Pennsylvania on Saturday, January 23.
