EAST STROUDSBURG – East Stroudsburg University had five players finish with double-figure points as the Warriors raced past Felician, 104-80, in non-conference men's basketball action on Monday night at Koehler Fieldhouse.
The 100-plus point output for the Warriors was their second straight, following up a 110-point performance against Cheyney on Saturday. ESU last scored 100 points in back-to-back contests during the 2017-18 season, when the team registered a streak of four straight.
Carlos Pepin, who was named the PSAC East Defensive Athlete of the Week earlier in the day, led the Warrior offense with 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting. The sophomore also pulled down nine boards, while adding three assists and three steals.
Kitt Najee Walls registered 14 points, and the trio of Mike Millsip, Shamir Johnson and Troy Jones each netted 11 points in the contest. Jones also added a team-high five assists. Zach Sabol had a big game in the paint for the Warriors, finishing with a game-high 13 rebounds and five blocks.
ESU (3-1) shot 48.7-percent from the field in the win and had its best three-point shooting night of the season thus far, going 14-of-28 (.500) from distance. Felician (2-3) shot 43.1-percent from the field and made 6-of-15 (.400) beyond the arc. The Warriors held a 48-38 advantage on the boards over the Golden Falcons.
Neither team led by more than six points through the opening 16:30 of play until a three-pointer from Jones pushed the ESU advantage to 38-30 with 3:30 remaining in the first half. Millsip followed with a layup on the next possession to give the Warriors the first double-digit lead of the contest, 40-30.
With under a minute left in the half, Jeff Lewis converted a three-point play to cut the Felician deficit to seven, but Pepin answered on the other end for the Warriors with a deep ball to send ESU into the halftime break with a 51-41 advantage.
ESU came out strong in the second half, opening the frame with an 11-4 run, fueled by a pair of three pointers from Marc Rodriguez. The rally extended the lead to 62-45 in the early minutes.
Felician battled back and trimmed its deficit back down to 11 with 12:51 remaining in the game, but ESU answered with seven straight, including two three-pointers from Walls, to make it an 18-point game at the midway point of the half.
At the 7:18 mark, Jones knocked down a deep ball to give the Warriors their first 20-plus point advantage of the game at 84-62. They didn't look back from there, not letting the advantage dip below 18 points the rest of the way en route to the 104-80 victory.
ESU is back on the court this Saturday (Nov. 23) for its first PSAC action of the year in a battle at Pitt-Johnstown at 3 p.m.