The Shippensburg University men's basketball team put forth an excellent effort in the final 15 minutes Saturday to win its Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) opener on the road, defeating Seton Hill by an 83-77 score in Greensburg.
Shippensburg (2-3, 1-0 PSAC) scored 47 points in the second half, shooting 53 percent from the field and committing just four turnovers over the final 20 minutes to defeat a Seton Hill (5-2, 0-2) team that has been undefeated entering the weekend.
Redshirt-sophomore
Markus Frank led all players with 23 points, including a perfect 7-of-7 rate at the free-throw line, to go along with six rebounds, four assists and three steals. It is the fourth time in five games that Frank has scored 20 or more points. Frank was one of five Raiders in double figures.
While the balanced scoring was pivotal to the victory, the rebounding edge was arguably more important – SU posted a 46-29 edge on the glass and scored 18 second-chance points.
Integral to the cause was junior
Donovan Hill, who put forth a herculean effort and recorded what was hardly an ordinary double-double.
Hill scored 16 points while grabbing an incredible 24 rebounds – the most by any PSAC player in more than five years (Slippery Rock's Micah Till had 27 on Feb. 3, 2018).
It is the most rebounds by a Raider this century and in at least 30 years.
Hill had grabbed 11 rebounds within the game's first 12 minutes and totaled 12 rebounds in each half. It is his second double-double this season and he has totaled 51 rebounds over his last three games.
Junior
Timmy Conner scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half, including 3-of-6 from three-point range. Fellow juniors
Trey Martin and
Denzel Figueroa each chipped in 10 points – with Figueroa scoring a pair of field goals in the game's final five minutes that helped cement the victory.
Junior
Michael Dickson returned to action and recorded a game-high seven assists and committed just one turnover. In his three games this season, Dickson has totaled 20 assists compared to just four turnovers. Junior
Jalen Bowie had five points and two rebounds.
Neither team led by more than six points in the first half; the score was 38-36 in Seton Hill's favor at the intermission. The Griffins led 47-40 at the 16:47 mark and took their largest lead of the game, 54-46, with 14 minutes remaining.
From there, SU countered with a 10-0 run that began with a Conner three-pointer, continued with five points from Frank (including an "and-one" layup), and concluded with a Conner jumper. The Raiders led 56-54 with 11:49 to go, but the lead then exchanged hands on each of the next three possessions.
A Conner three-pointer with 9:09 left gave Shippensburg a 62-61 lead that it would not relinquish the rest of the way despite the Griffins remaining close. Dickson assisted on back-to-back SU buckets – layups by Conner and Hill – to give the Raiders a five-point lead with 6:41 left, but the Griffins got right back within one at the 6:23 mark.
Another Conner three-pointer, followed by layups from Hill and Figueroa, got the SU lead up to eight with 4:39 left. The Raider defense hunkered down in crunch time, and the advantage got as high as 10 points in the final minute.
Shippensburg's 83 points came against the conference's top scoring defense, as Seton Hill has allowed just 63.3 points per game through seven contests this season. The Griffins also boast the conference's top shooting defense at just 39.6 percent after Saturday's game, but the Raiders finished the game shooting 44.8 percent from the field.
Kedrick Curtis had a double-double for the hosts with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Ryan Meis had 14 points and was held to 2-of-10 from three-point range. Gage Lattimore had 13 points.
Shippensburg returns to action at 3 p.m. tomorrow at IUP to play the game rescheduled from Friday that was postponed due to travel issues that stemmed from the inclement weather.
Notes: The most rebounds by an SU player previously this century was 21 by Dustin Sleva on Dec. 16, 2015 at Mansfield...the single-game school record for rebounds is 32 by Ken Miller on Dec. 19, 1964.
