Kutztown Kutz 7-15,4-12 PSAC

East Stroudsburg ESU 14-7,12-5 PSAC

Kutztown Kutz

7-15,4-12 PSAC

Final

Feb. 07, 2022

East Stroudsburg ESU

14-7,12-5 PSAC

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Kutztown Kutz	31	42	73
East Stroudsburg ESU	42	47	89

Summary
Box Score

Keondre Morris

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | 2/7/2022 10:48:00 PM

McAliley’s 27 Points Pace Warriors in Win over Kutztown

EAST STROUDSBURG -- For the second time over the past five days, the East Stroudsburg University men's basketball team defeated Kutztown, handing the Golden Bears an 89-73 loss on Monday night inside Koehler Fieldhouse.

The Warriors (14-7, 12-5) return to their winning ways after falling to Millersville on Saturday. The Golden Bears fall to 7-15, 4-12 in league play. ESU is a half-game behind Shippensburg (12-5) for second place and a game-and-a-half behind Millersville for first place in the PSAC East with five games remaining.

Lakeem McAliley paced the Warrior offense with a PSAC-high 27 points on an efficient 11-of-17 shooting from the field. He grabbed four rebounds and tallied three steals and a block with just two turnovers in 25 minutes.

Notables

The Warriors shot a season-best 60.7 percent from the field (34-56), breaking its previous season-best of 58.7 percent set against Georgian Court. The Warriors dominated in the paint, outscoring the Golden Bears 52-28. It's the best shooting percentage for ESU since shooting 62.1 percent against West Chester on 2/17/18.
ESU also held significant advantages in bench points (36-15) and points off turnovers (24-15).
Carlos Pepin added 16 points (6-13 FG) while Troy Jones added 15 and Justin Paz also reached double-figures with 10 points. Pepin and Marc Rodriguez led ESU with six rebounds each. Pepin totaled three blocks and shot an efficient 6-of-8 from the floor.
Paz stuffed the stat sheet, tying his career-high with six assists and added a steal and a pair of rebounds.
In two games against the Golden Bears over the past five days, McAliley scored 49 points (24.5 ppg), 5.0 rebounds and six steals. Pepin averaged 21 points and 13.5 rebounds. The two combined to shoot 64.8 percent (35-54 FG) against KU in just two games.
The Warriors have now won 10 consecutive games against Kutztown and eight of their last 10 matchups overall. ESU has not lost to KU since the 2016-17 season when the Golden Bears won three consecutive matchups.

How It Happened

The Warriors built an early 11-5 advantage, before Kutztown eventually evened the score at 15-15 halfway through the opening half.
After KU took a lead at 18-17 and 20-19, ESU would close the first half strong with an 12-2 run, taking a 42-31 lead into the halftime locker room. After 20 minutes, McAliley (13 pts.) and Pepin (10 pts.) paced the offense with a combined 23 points. The Warriors sunk 65 percent (17-26 FG & 4-of-10 from 3PT) of its field goals in the first half.
In the second half, ESU's lead would jump to 16 after a Pepin and Jones layup along with a triple from Rodriguez resulted in a 7-2 run. Not to be outdone, KU scored 10 consecutive points, forcing three ESU turnovers in a span of 2:29 of clock. ESU's lead dwindled to just six at 59-53 with 15:17 remaining in the second half.
ESU would keep KU at an arms length away, as the Warriors led by nine at 61-52 with 9:53 left. An 11-4 run increased the ESU tlead to 72-56 with just 6:20 to go. KU sliced the deficit back to 11 points at 72-61 following a quick 5-0 run, but the Warriors would outscore KU 17-11 over the next 3:14, extending its lead to a game-high 18 points at 89-71 with under a minute to go. The Golden Bears tacked on two free throws to wrap up the scoring from Koehler Fieldhouse.

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