INDIANA, PA (January 9, 2011) – Tamir Johnson (Philadelphia, PA/Imhotep Charter) had a career-high 25 points off an impressive 11-of-15 shooting, but the Kutztown University men's basketball team fell to Indiana University of Pa. 74-68 in its final Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Crossover game of the season. (BOXSCORE)
Sunday's game was a rematch of last year's PSAC Championship game where IUP defeated KU 89-73.
The first half was a back and forth battle which included five lead changes. With 10 minutes, 39 seconds remaining in the half, Kutztown (7-5) went on a 16-6 run and took a six point lead off an Eric Brennan (Chester, PA/West Catholic) jumper to give KU a 31-25 lead with 5:46 to go. IUP (9-3) responded with nine unanswered points to lead the Golden Bears at halftime, 34-31.
After being down by as many as 13 in the second half, Kutztown went on another epic run to put the game within striking distance. Devon McBride (Richmond, VA/Hill School) began an eventual 18-6 KU run off a 3-pointer with 12:11 to go. McBride played a significant role in the KU comeback, scoring all eight of his points during the run.
With just over three minutes remaining, senior Steve Coffey (Reading, PA/Wilson) hit a jumper and capped off the run by cutting the IUP lead to one at 65-64. The spark ran out for Kutztown at that point as offense was hard to come by, scoring in just two of its final seven possessions. Coffey finished with seven points.
One of Kutztown's main focuses coming into the weekend was cutting down turnovers. It turned the ball over just 10 times against IUP, its lowest total of the year.
Johnson was the only Golden Bear in double figures and surpassed his previous career-high in points by one, scoring 24 on Nov 23 against Goldey-Beacom. He also pitched in a team-high nine rebounds. Johnson leads the team in scoring, averaging 14.6 points per game.
This makes back-to-back games where a player has scored 25 points for Kutztown as Julius Gray (Lincoln University, PA/Oxford Area) had 25 against California on Saturday. Gray finished with eight points against IUP.
IUP had five players in double figures and were led by Willi Estrella who had 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Kutztown finishes this year's PSAC Crossover play with a 1-3 record, defeating California 72-66 on Saturday. The Golden Bears will now move into their in-conference portion of the schedule as it will go against Shippensburg on Wednesday January 12 beginning at 8:00 p.m.
--KU--
