EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. — The ESU men’s basketball team’s regular season finale couldn’t be any higher stakes with a share of the PSAC East title on the line, as the Warriors head down to West Chester on Saturday afternoon before heading into the postseason.

SCOUTING EAST STROUDSBURG

• ESU is currently 14-6 in conference play, tied with West Chester and Shepherd. Millersville is 15-6, as the Marauders wrapped up their regular season on Wednesday with a win over Millersville. If ESU wins, they clinch the one seed and a share of the division title. If they lose but Shepherd also loses, they’ll hold the tiebreaker over the Rams and earn the third seed.
• The Warriors have won four-straight games and six of their last seven heading into Saturday’s matchup. All but one of their wins during this stretch have been by double-digits, with the exception of a four-point win at Lock Haven on Feb. 18.
• ESU’s strength has been its collection of scorers, with different players stepping up throughout the year. Last time out, it was Jalen Pichardo and Ethan Millirons. Pichardo scored a career-high 22 points against Kutztown on 10-13 shooting, improving his field-goal percentage on the year to 61.0% to go along with 8.3 RPG. Millirons had a great day beyond the arc, going 5-7 with another make from the field for a 17-point outing. Millirons is shooting 47.5% from three-point range, the best in the PSAC.
• Nasir Griffin joined the 1,000-point club in Wednesday’s win over Kutztown, as he’s been a reliable double-digit scorer all season. The senior is one of three Warriors averaging over 10.0 PPG.
• The other two contributing double-digit scoring on a per-game basis are Adrian Brito and Ethan Maynard. Brito leads the team with 12.3 PPG, shooting an efficient 60.6% from the field. He’s helped out all over the court, averaging 5.1 RPG and just under a steal and block per game. Maynard has caught fire from three-point distance in his last couple of games, making four threes in three of ESU’s last four games, bringing his 3P% up to 41.3% while scoring 12.0 PPG.
• The Warriors have the second-best scoring offense in the conference with 88.9 PPG and also outrebound their opponents at the third-best rate of 5.9 RPG. This has helped offset a scoring defense that allows 79.0 PPG, which falls in the bottom half of the PSAC.
• Despite its scoring defense, ESU still forces a high number of turnovers with 17.4, 2.7 less per game than they commit, turning chances into points with its full-court pressure.

SCOUTING WEST CHESTER

• The Golden Rams have an identical 20-7 overall record and 14-6 conference record as ESU, but are just 4-3 during their last seven games. West Chester is coming off an 82-76 overtime loss to Millersville, having previously won three-straight before that game.
• West Chester has had four players start every game for them this season: Ruben Rodriguez Jr., Anthony McCall, Gabe Moss, and Dylan Blair. The first three all average double figures in scoring per game, with Rodriguez Jr. leading the group with 14.9 PPG. He also leads the team with 30.8 MPG, 6.7 RPG, and 4.4 APG.
• McCall and Moss are second and third with 13.7 PPG and 12.9 PPG, respectively. McCall does most of his work from inside the arc, while Moss exclusively scores inside the three-point line. They each have shot 50.2% and 68.2% from the field this season.
• Moss and Rodriguez Jr. have excelled this season in getting to the free-throw line and converting their looks. They each rank second and third in the PSAC in total attempts, with Moss making 109-158, and Rodriguez Jr. shooting 108-146. As a team, the Golden Rams lead the PSAC and rank ninth in terms of free throw attempts per game.
• Blair has been the Golden Rams’ top three-point threat. No one has shot the ball more from distance on West Chester than Blair, making 40 of his 112 attempts on the season. Jaysean Williams is the only Golden Ram to do so more efficiently, going 40-95 on the season. Both of them average a little over 9.0 PPG.
• West Chester is one of the best rebounding teams in all of Division II, outrebounding its opponents by a margin of 10.3 RPG, third-best in the country. The Golden Rams also have near-identical marks to the Warriors in terms of turnover margin and turnovers forced per game.
• West Chester is also right behind ESU in terms of scoring offense, coming into the game ranked third in the conference with 85.6 PPG. They’ve had a slightly more productive defense this season, allowing only 73.5 PPG.

SERIES HISTORY

• The Golden Rams won the first meeting between the two teams 85-82 in Koehler Fieldhouse in late January. They’ve come out on top in the last two meetings, winning 84-80 in West Chester last season. Though the teams split their regular season series last year, the team that won the first game had won the second one in the four seasons before that.
• ESU is 93-82 all-time against the Golden Rams, with Head Coach Jeff Wilson’s teams going 32-20 since he took over.