Box Score



KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) quarterfinal game truly lived up to the bill Tuesday night.  The Kutztown University men's basketball team refused to quit and fought all the way to the final buzzer before falling to East Stroudsburg in overtime, 99-91, at Keystone Arena.
 
Fans knew from the opening tip that the game would ultimately come down to the final possession.  The Golden Bears (18-9) overcame numerous obstacles throughout the game and saw clutch plays down the stretch from each one of its players.  
 
KU's trio of seniors did all they could to keep their collegiate careers alive.  After what can be described as one of the toughest and most physical game of their careers, seniors Eric Brennan (Chester, PA/West Catholic) (Chester, PA/West Catholic), Nate Edwards (Philadelphia, PA/North Catholic) (Philadelphia, PA/North Catholic), and Devon McBride (Richmond, VA/Hill School) (Richmond, VA/Hill School) walked off the floor for the final time in the maroon and gold.
 
Junior guard Micah Fraction (Macungie, PA/Montrose Christian) (Macungie, PA/Montrose Christian) led KU from the opening tip.  He poured in a career-high 34 points and nearly saw a flashback of his game-winning theatrics from two weeks ago.  KU was 22 seconds away from moving onto the semifinals after a Fraction 3-pointer broke the tie and gave it an 83-80 advantage.  ESU's Terrance King grabbed an offensive rebound with six seconds to go and laid it in with a KU foul.  He converted on the free throw for one of his career-high 32 points to dramatically send the game into overtime.
 
ESU scored the opening bucket and led the entire overtime period as the Golden Bears simply did not have an answer in the final moments.
 
Fraction scored 19 of his 34 in the first half and played the biggest role in the KU offense in the opening period.  He finished the game 3-for-6 from beyond the arc and made an astonishing 13-of-14 free throws.
 
After being down by as many as eight in the second half, Brennan showed his veteran poise to bring KU back into contention.  Brennan turned an eight point deficit to two with back to back 3-pointers to bring the game to 64-66 with 10:09 remaining in regulation.  He struggled with foul trouble in the opening 20 minutes but scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half.  After eventually fouling out with 59 seconds to play in overtime, Brennan walked over to the KU bench and was immediately embraced by fellow senior Edwards as the two have developed storied careers in their time at Kutztown.
 
Edwards made two free throws with less than two minutes to play in regulation to give KU an 80-78 advantage, its first lead since going into halftime up 43-41.  The conference's third most leading scorer finished with four points in his limited minutes on the floor. 
 
Led by McBride's career-high 15, the Golden Bears outrebounded the Warriors 50-43, but shot ten percentage points fewer than ESU from the field.  KU's 37.8 percent was trounced by ESU's 47.8. 
 
McBride has been a scoring machine in his senior campaign.  He averaged 20.1 points per game and was in the top two in the conference in scoring for the majority of the season.  He scored 18 against the Warriors, and seven of his 15 boards came on the offensive end.
 
Freshman Abdul King (Philadelphia, PA/Constitution) (Philadelphia, PA/Constitution) turned in his top performance of the season for KU.  He made each one of his 27 minutes on the floor count as he teamed up against some of ESU's top inside players.  He grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds and chipped in nine points to help out in times when KU saw a pair of its starters in foul trouble.  
 
The Warrior's top three players turned in the majority of their points at the charity stripe.  King, freshman Whis Grant, and senior Russell Graham combined for 27-of-31 at the line as the team shot 32-for-39.  King tallied his tenth career double-double with ten rebounds while shooting 11-for-19 from the field.  Grant dropped 19 and dished out nine assists, while Grant scored 16 with a game-high three steals and a perfect 10-for-10 performance at the free throw line.
 
Edwards concludes his career as KU's ninth most leading scorer in school history.  He scored 1,292 points in his four years at Kutztown.  He also had 197 steals, good for third on the KU leaderboard.
 
Brennan joins Edwards as a 1,000-point scorer.  He finishes with 1,336 points and brought one of the best team mentalities a coach could ask for.  Not only is he one of KU's greatest passers, but he entered the game rated third in the PSAC in rebounding (9.5).  He grabbed six Tuesday night.
 
Kutztown returns 11 players for the 2012-13 season as it will look to repeat as PSAC Eastern Division champs.  It set a school-record of 15 conference victories this season and showed a strong promise in the final games of the season of bright things to come in the future.