EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. — In the final game before the new year, the ESU men's basketball team dropped a cross-divisional contest to Indiana (Pa.) (IUP) Sunday afternoon, 96-82.
 
NOTABLES

• Nasir Griffin led ESU in scoring, putting up 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Griffin recorded double-digit scoring in three-straight games, bringing his average up to 11.0 PPG on the season.
• Ethan Maynard had another positive offensive outing, putting up 14 points on 66.7% shooting from the field and making two of his four three point attempts.
• ESU's two standout freshmen, Adrian Brito and Keni Williams, each scored 13 points and provided different impacts in their own ways outside of scoring. Williams spent time as the Warriors' lead point guard down the stretch, finishing with seven assists. Brito had one of his best games of his career defensively, rejecting four shots and grabbing six rebounds.
• Jalen Pichardo came a couple rebounds shy of a double-double, as the forward's had a couple of games where that's happened. Pichardo went 3-for-5 from the field with seven rebounds, all of them coming off the offensive glass.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• IUP jumped ahead from the start, getting buckets from a mix of Dallis Dillard, Bautista Rodriguez, Christian Moore to build up its lead. Near the halfway mark, IUP's lead reached eight points with a 28-20 advantage. ESU closed that gap to just one point with an 11-4 run, getting buckets from Williams and Maynard to make it a one possession game. However, IUP responded with a 20-6 run over the next five minutes, reestablishing its double-digit lead and going into halftime up 52-41.
• ESU came out of the break and gradually chipped away at the Crimson Hawks' lead. Griffin hit a three-pointer to begin the momentum swing, the Brito scored six-straight points for the Warriors. With the deficit down to three, Saleem Payne found Christian Pierre-Louis on a broken play open beyond the arc for a clean look, as Pierre-Louis knocked it down to tie the game at 65 apiece with just under 12 minutes remaining.
• Much like when ESU made it close in the first half, IUP had a response to extend its lead back to a more comfortable margin. Dillard went on a 9-0 run himself over the next minute and a half to put IUP up 74-65 with 9:17 to go. ESU was quicker to push back this time, as Williams added a layup, Pichardo made a great pass to a cutting Ethan Millirons for two points, and Pitts added another layup to trim IUP's lead to one.
• Despite the resilience, ESU was unable to tie or retake the lead from that point on. IUP closed the game on a 22-9 run, ending in a 96-82 loss for the Warriors.

 
UP NEXT

• ESU has 11 days off before returning to action in January, when they'll continue PSAC crossover play. The Warriors open the New Year with a cross-state trip that starts against California at 5 p.m. on Jan. 2, and play again the next day at 3 p.m. against Slippery Rock.