Men’s Basketball Defeats Lockhaven in 75-61 Win

Photo Credit/ Helen Bradley

Helen Bradley 

Staff Writer 

Our Men’s Basketball team put on a thrilling show last Wednesday, beating Lockhaven 75-61 after a mighty defensive push in the last minutes of the game.

The Warriors stepped out on their first home game of the semester to a boisterous crowd of over 1,000 people.

To make the game even more special, the basketball court in Koehler Fieldhouse had been decked out with a new scoreboard, boasting a big, 360-degree screen that allows for live play and replays to be viewed by the crowd.

The first half set the tone for the game with ESU and Lockhaven battling back and forth.

The Warriors held the lead the whole half with Redshirt Sophomore Marc Rodriguez throwing two three-pointers.

However, Lockhaven continued to fight back, narrowing the scoring margin between the two teams.

The first half ended with ESU leading 38-32.

The second half got off to a fast start with Graduate Student Kit Walls intercepting Lockhaven’s inbound pass right in front of the hoop and scoring two points for the Warriors.

The fast game pace continued and ESU seemed to struggle to keep up and find their routine.

Lockhaven threw multiple long-passes down the court, beating most of ESU’s defense in one throw.

The battle continued between the two teams with nearly a full minute of neither team scoring.

At the 15:23 mark, Lockhaven evened out the score 44-44.

ESU called a time out in response.

Lockhaven started to falter with consecutive travel violations being called against them, but ESU did not capitalize on this.

Instead, the boys started giving up simple fouls and struggled to connect passes in their offense.

Senior Montreal Morgan was the one to pick the team up and get the Warriors back on the right track.

The referees gave Lockhaven’s coach a foul, giving ESU two free-throws which were taken by Morgan.

Morgan then continued on to score two three-pointers in a row.

This gave Morgan eight straight points and lifted the Warriors to a 54-49 lead.

Lockhaven responded by putting away four points, narrowing their deficit to one point.

However, ESU had found their groove and did not let their lead slip away.

Sophomore Shamir Johnson helped the effort scoring six points in the last 8 minutes.

Redshirt Junior Troy Jones added to the score, throwing a three-pointer with 5:26 left on the clock.

The Warriors found their largest lead of the game with less than a minute remaining.

ESU finished the game-winning 75-61.

The win was tough but came from a strong defensive effort in the second half.

The boys forced 31 turnovers and scored 27 points off of them.

Overall, this was a real team game for the Warriors with nine players putting points on the board with Morgan leading that effort with a total of 15 points.

A total of 28 points were scored by players coming off of the bench.

This win gives ESU an 11-8 overall record and a 7-7 record in the PSAC.

Last Saturday, the boy’s faced off against their big rival, Shippensburg, before traveling to take on Bloomsburg yesterday.

The team has four more home games before the post-season begins so make sure to come out and support the boys as they work to have another successful season.

Email Helen at:

hbradley2@live.esu.edu