The Shippensburg University men's basketball team brought home its first victory of the season with an 85-68 victory over Wheeling at the Atlantic Region Crossover hosted by West Liberty.
 
Shippensburg (1-1) shot 47.1 percent from the field, 34.8 percent from behind the arc and 11-of-13 from the free-throw line. The Raiders held advantages in points off turnovers (18-13), second chance points (138), bench points (31-25), and points in the paint (38-32).
 
Redshirt-junior Ty Crespo had a career day as his 25 points led all scorers in the game. Junior Kamau Mitchell and sophomore Trey Martin also set highs with 15 points and 10 points, respectively. Mitchell's 15 points came in 14 minutes off the bench for the Raiders.
 
Little separated the teams for the first 15 minutes of the first half with eight ties and 12 lead changes in the run of play. An 18-2 run for the Raiders in the final 5:18 featuring 11 points from Crespo helped Shippensburg pull away to a 48-32 lead at the half. Crespo finished the half with 18 points. Shippensburg shot 50 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes, hitting 5-of-13 shots from behind the arc.
 
With 5:18 to play before halftime, Shippensburg and Wheeling were tied 30-30. Junior Michael Dunn sunk a pull-up jumper. Crespo then scored the next seven points of the game, finishing a layup and hitting a big three in the span of six seconds to extend the Raiders lead to nine. The Cardinals cut the lead to seven, but Shippensburg answered with a 9-0 run as Crespo scored the final four points to give the Raiders a 16-point lead heading into the half.
 
Wheeling chipped away at the Raider advantage. A layup by Crespo and a three by redshirt-freshman Markus Frank gave the Raiders its biggest lead of the night at 53-34. Wheeling trailed by 15 points at the 12:48 mark when it hit a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 64-56. Crespo ended a 4:14 scoring drought with a layup, but the Cardinals got back to work with a 6-1 scoring run to make it a five-point game with 6:41 left to play.
 
Mitchell halted the Wheeling momentum with a big and-one conversion at the other end. The Raiders found their stride again with a 12-0 run capped off by a Mitchell three-pointer to restore the double-digit lead at 79-62.
 
Crespo finished the game 9-of-10 from the field, making both of his threes, and was 5-of-6 at the free-throw line. He also had four rebounds and three assists. Junior guard Satchel Ball led the Raiders in rebounds, grabbing seven in his 17 minutes off the bench to go along with three assists.
 
SU returns to action at 8 p.m. Wednesday for its home opener against Wilmington at Heiges Field House.