KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The road to the Final Four has been a long and exciting journey for the Kutztown University men's basketball team. Now that it has worked its way to one of the top four teams in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC), the hunt for a conference championship begins this weekend, as the city of Erie and Gannon University host the PSAC Final Four.
 
In the PSAC semifinals on Saturday, March 7 at Gannon's Hammermill Center, East Stroudsburg and Indiana University (PA) battle at 1 p.m. The second semifinal is set for 3:30 p.m. and will feature Kutztown University and Gannon University to determine who will keep their season alive and move on to the PSAC championship game.
 
The Golden Bears (19-11) advance to the PSAC Final Four for the fifth time in program history, as they are two wins away from their first-ever PSAC Championship. Kutztown has won four PSAC East titles in its history, but has yet to hoist the conference trophy at the end of the conference tournament.
 
Kutztown is 4-0 all-time in PSAC semifinal games and 10-14 in the PSAC Tournament. KU head coach and 2015 PSAC East Coach of the Year Bernie Driscoll is responsible for three championship game appearances and an 8-11 playoff record.
 
Gannon (21-8), the top-seed in the Western Division and host of the Final Four, won the regular season meeting on its home floor against Kutztown earlier this year. In the final PSAC crossover game of the season on Jan. 7, Gannon broke open a 45-45 tie with 11:45 to play and ended the game on a 15-point, 31-16 run to earn a 76-61 win.
 
Kutztown and Gannon have met one time in the postseason. Gannon defeated Kutztown in the 2009 PSAC Championship game, 80-65. It snapped a 15-game winning streak for the NCAA Tournament-bound Golden Bears, who were led by Stephen Dennis' 28 points and 10 rebounds.

If KU advances to the PSAC Championship game on Sunday, it would be the third time in program history that KU would meet ESU or IUP in the playoffs. ESU defeated KU in the quarterfinals in 2011 (83-70) and 2012 (99-91). IUP defeated KU 84-73 in the 2010 championship game, and 83-74 in the 2004 championship game.
 
Kutztown holds a large advantage in scoring per game at +13.1 over Gannon, but the Golden Knights possess the top defensive team in the league. KU averages 76.2 points per game, fourth in the PSAC, but Gannon holds its opponents to a league-low 56 points per game.
 
KU is one of the best shooting teams in the PSAC. It is second in the league and leads the East at 47.4 percent from the field. It broke the KU single-game shooting percentage record and has made 50 percent or more of its shots 11 times this season. Notably, KU shot 43.9 percent against Gannon on Jan. 7 on 18 field goals, its second-lowest of the season.
 
The Golden Bears are not too shabby on defense either. It is the top shot-blocking team in the league (4.3), and third in the PSAC East in scoring defense (72.0) and opposing field goal percentage (.426).
 
Both teams shoot well from beyond the arc. In fact, all four teams in the Final Four rank in the top seven in the PSAC in three-point shooting percentage.
 
Kutztown and Gannon will each have three All-PSAC players on the floor on Saturday. For Kutztown, Tyler Brooks, Tynell Fortune and Josh Johnson were all All-PSAC East Second Team honorees. For Gannon, seniors Adam Blazek and Girbran Smith were First Team selections in the West, as Raphell Thomas-Edwards earned Second Team recognition.
 
Kutztown's Brooks and A'Darius Porter of Gannon were each named the PSAC Defensive Athletes of the Year in their divisions, marking the first showdown of the respective award winners in the PSAC Tournament since the awards inception in 2012.
 
A KU win on Saturday would mark the programs fourth 20-win season, the first since it won at least 20 games in three straight seasons from 2007-10.
 
Driscoll has led KU's previous three 20-win teams and is KU's winningest coach at 237 wins, 10th in PSAC history. He has led the Golden Bears to a winning season in 11 of the last 13 years, and an appearance in the PSAC Tournament in 12 of the last 13. This is his fourth career Final Four appearance, and he holds a 3-0 record in semifinal games.
 
Brooks, KU's first PSAC East Defensive Athlete of the Year, will play in his 100th career game on Saturday. He leads the PSAC East with a career-high 55 blocks this season at 1.8 per game, the most for a Golden Bear since 2010. For his career, Brooks has scored 832 points while ranking fifth in KU history in blocks (141), eighth in rebounds (520), ninth in steals (153) and 10th in assists (239).
 
Fortune, an All-PSAC Second Team selection, averages a team-leading 16.5 points per game for fourth in the PSAC. Fortune does most of his damage from beyond the arc and at the charity stripe. His 57 three-pointers rank second in the PSAC East and his 174 free throws lead the PSAC and rank third in KU single-season history.  He also ranks second in the PSAC at 87.0 percent at the free throw line.
 
A sophomore, Johnson is averaging a career-high 14.8 points and 7.3 rebounds this season. He is shooting 62.4 percent from the field, second in the PSAC and 14th in Division II, and was named the PSAC East Athlete of the Week twice this season.
 
Kutztown will also count on sophomore point guard Austin Beidelman. He averages 8.3 points and 3.1 assists per game for KU, and played a significant role in KU's quarterfinal win at West Chester on Tuesday night. He scored 18 points with three three-pointers, and is nearing 500 career points in his sophomore season at 472 in 53 career games.
 
Gannon enters Saturday on a six-game winning streak, holding its opponents under 60 points in its last six games. Smith averages 14.4 points per game and is shooting 83.1 percent at the free throw line. Blazek averages 14.1 per game with a team-leading 3.8 assists per game. Thomas-Edwards and Porter each average more than seven rebounds per game and combine for nearly 16 points per contest.
 
The winner of Saturday's KU-GU semifinal will face the winner of the ESU-IUP semifinal in the PSAC Championship on Sunday, March 8 at 3:30 p.m. The game will be televised live on PCN.