Box Score

MANSFIELD, Pa. – Redshirt sophomore guard Dane Lauber had a career-high 17 points on Saturday afternoon from Decker Gymnasium as an inspired second-half effort and a throwback defensive performance by the Shippensburg University men's basketball team resulted in the team's second-straight PSAC East victory, 71-63 over Mansfield.

Shippensburg (10-11, 3-5 PSAC East) avenged a loss to the Mountaineers in January at the start of divisional play with balanced scoring and attention to detail. SU compiled a 44-to-35 advantage in rebounding and recorded 16 assists compared to 14 turnovers. Six players also contibuted at least five points in the game.

Mansfield (14-7, 5-3 PSAC East) led for most of the first half but never had an advantage greater than six points. The key to the Red Raider momentum began in the final eight minutes of the first half, as the SU defense began to hunker down and create momentum on both ends of the floor.

The final 83 seconds of the first half gave Shippensburg its ultimate spark. Trailing by two points, SU came down the floor and Lauber drilled a three-pointer off an assist from senior guard Brian Oleksiak. After a missed three-pointer that gave the ball back to Shippensburg with under a minute to go, Oleksiak was fouled and sank a pair of free throws.

After a 1-for-2 trip to the free-throw line by the Mountaineers, SU worked for the final shot of the first half with a two-point lead. The Red Raiders capitalized splendidly as redshirt sophomore forward Will Royal banked in a layup off an assist from redshirt freshman guard Lamar Jackson that gave SU a 37-33 lead heading into the locker room.

Sophomore guard Craig Van Scyoc, who finished in double figures for the fifth consecutive game, drilled a three-pointer just 17 seconds into the second half that extended the advantage to seven points. A jumper two minutes later by Van Scyoc pushed the lead to nine points, but the Mountaineers countered with a 9-0 run to tie the score and setup yet another battle down the stretch with 15:06 still to play in regulation.

Shippensburg proved its mettle by never trailing for the remainder of the game. Despite numerous efforts by the Mountaineers to trim their deficit in the second half, several Red Raiders picked up the scoring slack when the team needed their production. Redshirt senior forward Daziah Miller produced his only points of the game on a three-point play with 13:01 remaining and gave SU its lead to defend down the stretch.

Points in the paint by redshirt freshman Will Kirkland and Royal kept the Shippensburg offense steady until a three-pointer by junior Jaren Gembe bumped the lead to six points with 10:08 remaining. Royal answered a Tony Fannick jumper with a layup of his own and another trifecta from Lauber put SU up by nine points with 8:05 to go.

Mansfield got within six points on two occasions but Shippensburg's free-throw shooting came up big when it needed to produce the most. With the exception of two misses at the end of the game by Royal, Shippensburg was 9-of-10 from the charity stripe in the second half. On the other side of the ball, Mansfield was just 9-of-23 (39.1 percent) from the free-throw line in the game.

Lauber was sensational in the first half, pacing the Red Raider attack with 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting that included a perfect 3-of-3 effort from three-point range. Also in the first half, Kirkland played just four minutes but scored seven points and made all three of his shots from the field. Senior guard Brian Oleksiak also had four points and four assists in the first 20 minutes of play.

The momentous effort of Royal cannot go without mention. Constantly matched up with Mansfield juggernaut Yuseff Carr, Royal played a season-high 34 minutes and delivered 14 points with a career-high 12 rebounds. Offensively, Carr faced an SU doubleteam all day and finished with just six points and nine rebounds in 34 minutes, including an 0-of-7 performance from the free-throw line.

In his last three games against Shippensburg heading into Saturday, Carr had averaged 19.0 points and 13.0 rebounds per game, all Mansfield victories (57 points, 39 rebounds).

Van Scyoc finished with 11 points and six rebounds, Kirkland had nine points, two rebounds and two assists while Jackson had six points, five assists and just two turnovers.

Shippensburg concludes its three-game road trip at 8 p.m. Wednesday from Pucillo Gymnasium in a battle with Millersville. The Red Raiders defeated the Marauders in the previous meeting from Heiges Field House, 68-61.

Notes: SU recorded its first positive assist-to-turnover ratio in 15 games...Mansfield out-rebounded the Red Raiders 43-30 in the previous meeting between the teams this season...Mansfield's Chris Pender played all 40 minutes and was 4-of-11 from three-point range...Pender never attempted a two-point field goal in the game despite never leaving the floor...Shippensburg versus Mansfield was the only Eastern Division game played on Saturday...the other divisional contests were pushed to either Sunday or Monday due to the snow...the Lady Raiders will remain in Mansfield overnight due to the blizzard affecting the Mid-Atlantic region and will travel back to campus on Sunday when the roads permit travel.