Mike Eshlemen

Staff Writer

 

After a rough winter break for the Marauders, they look to right the ship in the last few games of the season.

The Marauders proceeded into the winter break with a 4-4 record coming off of a 73-56 loss to Slippery Rock on December 10th. Upon returning to action in Pucillo Gymnasium on December 30th, Millersville took down PSAC East Rival Mansfield by a score of 71-68, pushing the team above .500 at a 5-4 record. After that win, things started to turn sour.

While Millersville students were still at home on winter break, the basketball team started to drop in the standings, losing eight of their next ten games going from a 5-4 record to a 7-12 record. The men took another two losses from Mansfield and East Stroudsburg, losing to ESU by 34 points. It didn’t get too much better after winter break came to a close as the team continued their struggles, losing their next three games.

The Marauders finally snapped their losing streak against Lock Haven in Pucillo Gymnasium on February 11th, winning the game by a final score of 88-82. It was obvious that something clicked in this game as opposed to the past few, and this win was able to keep the Marauders in the postseason picture, moving them ahead of the Lock Haven Bald Eagles in the PSAC East standings.

Against Lock Haven, the Marauders were getting contributions everywhere. Four players ended up scoring in double figures on Saturday.

Cornell Yarde II and Marcus Adkison both led the way in scoring for the Marauders with 18 points each, while Conrad Chambers dropped 17 points and Jordan Greene registered 16 points. Greene also added a career high 12 rebounds to notch his second career double-double.

The statistics in this game were just about even except for one crucial category: turnovers. Lock Haven gave the ball away 20 times while Millersville kept their turnovers down at a total of 13. This seemed to be the turning point of the game as the Marauders narrowly came away with the win.

Millersville stretched their lead in the second period during a 17-4 run, and then proceeded to extend the lead to 18 points with 7 minutes left. Lock Haven was not done just yet as they ended up storming back to cut the Marauder lead to as little as four points. During the final stretch, the Marauders did not have a field goal, but did just enough to hold Lock Haven off by sinking their free throws to secure the win.

This was the first victory for the Marauders since January 28th, when they took down Shippensburg by a score of 82-65. The Marauders will look to keep the momentum from a huge win going at Kutztown this Saturday, February 18th. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 pm.