Box Score

The Shippensburg University men's basketball team got career highs from freshman Abe Massaley and sophomore Jay Hardy on Wednesday night and set a season high for points but could not overcome a double-digit deficit in the second half, dropping an 84-81 battle to Edinboro at McComb Fieldhouse.

Shippensburg (2-11) trailed by eight points with 1:11 to play but got fouled twice on a pair of three-point attempts in the final 32 seconds of play and sunk all six free throws. SU ultimately scored 11 points in the final minute of the game, but missed a potential tying three-point attempt with one second left to come up short. 

Edinboro (7-6) committed just five turnovers in the game and sunk all six of its free-throw attempts in the final 30 seconds to secure the victory. The Fighting Scots opened the second half on a 10-4 run, and then countered an SU three-pointer with a second 10-4 run to lead 60-48 with 12:59 to play.

SU went on a 12-3 run over the next 4:04 to trail by just three points, 63-60, with 8:55 remaining. The Raiders would get within one point of the lead at the 2:43 mark before the Fighting Scots scored seven straight points to preface the frantic final minute.

The Raiders were 13-of-13 from the free-throw line in the second half and finished the game 16-of-17 at the charity stripe. SU also set a season high with nine three-pointers and matched its season-low of nine turnovers set in its last game against Slippery Rock.

Massaley finished with 27 points – the most by a SU rookie since 2004 – and matched a career high with eight assists. He was 9-of-16 from the floor, including 4-of-6 from three-point range and a perfect 5-of-5 from the free-throw line.

Hardy blitzed his career high by seven – amassing 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting. He was 4-of-8 from three-point range and 3-of-3 at the free-throw line in 38 minutes of action. It was his fifth double-digit effort of the season and fourth away from Heiges Field House in six road games.

Sophomore Joe Lococo scored 17 points and benefited from an 8-of-9 mark at the free-throw line. Junior Sam Pygatt and sophomore Tony Ellis each added six points – with foul trouble limiting Ellis to just 15 minutes in the contest.

Redshirt-freshman center Marcus Williams had four points, nine rebounds and a career-high four assists. His two blocks brought his season total to 15.

Shippensburg travels to No. 10 East Stroudsburg on Saturday as PSAC Eastern Division play reboots. Tip-off from Koehler Fieldhouse is set for 3 p.m.

Notes: The teams exchanged the lead 10 times and had 11 ties in the first half but Edinboro did not trail again after taking the lead with 2:13 left in the opening frame…Edinboro was not whistled for a foul for the first 11:46 of the second half…SU missed just one free-throw attempt in a game for the first time since Feb. 14, 2009 (11-of-12 at ESU)…Massaley's 27 points matches the output of Ryan Kraft in a 79-68 victory at Mansfield on Dec. 22, 2004…Ellis scored 26 last season at Shepherd, which had been the most by an SU freshman since Kraft's 27 in 2004…Hardy's 10 first-half points matched his previous first-half best of 10 against Salem International on Nov. 17, 2012.