SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Kutztown University men's basketball team had all five starters score in double-figures, but the cold outside shooting doomed KU as it dropped a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) road game 88-80 Saturday afternoon at Heiges Field House at Shippensburg University.
 
The Golden Bears (14-4 overall, 10-4 PSAC) could not get many three-pointers to fall, as they shot 6-for-22 (27.3%) from long range compared to the Raiders (15-3, 11-2) hot hands shooting 11-for-21 (52.4%) on the day.
 
Shippensburg leads the conference in three-point percentage (39.1) and is fifth in three-point defense, allowing its opponents to shoot 31.9 percent from beyond the arc. Entering the game, KU was shooting 36.3 percent from three, including Anthony Lee (Willow Grove, Pa./Abington)'s NCAA Division II leading 55.6 percent. Lee finished 0-for-4 from three with 11 points, but also had five rebounds, five assists, two blocks and one steal.
 
Senior Rafiq Marshall (Philadelphia, Pa./Simon Gratz (Cheyney)) led the team in scoring with 18 points. It is the second highest total of the season for Marshall, who also had three rebounds and one steal. Ethan Ridgeway (West Chester, Pa./Bayard Rustin) had 14 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals. Moe Williams (Townsend, Del./Life Center Academy) and Max Wagner (Perkasie, Pa./Pennridge) were the two other starters that reached double-digits, both scoring 11 points. Williams also had nine rebounds, three assists, one block and one steal, and Wagner grabbed six rebounds.
 
Sophomore Oenis Medina (Reading, Pa./Reading (Shippensburg)), who faced his old team for the first time after transferring this season, tied a career-high with six points on 2-of-2 shooting from the field and 2-for-3 at the free-throw line to go along with four rebounds.
 
In a back-and-forth first 10-plus minutes of the first half, which featured seven lead changes and five ties, the two teams were deadlocked at 21-21 with 9:06 left in the first half. The Raiders then went on a 12-2 run in the next 5:54 to claim a double-digit lead, which they would take in the locker rooms, ahead 43-29.
 
Kutztown cut its deficit to within six (45-39) within the first 2:10 of the second half, but Shippensburg built its lead back up with a 13-2 run in the next 4:57, and never surrendered its double-digit advantage until the final basket of the game, a layup by Ricky Hicks (Coatesville, Pa./Polytech).
 
Shippensburg was led by PSAC's third leading scoring Dustin Sleva (22.4 ppg). Sleva had 25 points to go along with 15 rebounds, and shot 4-for-4 from three.
 
Facundo Arens (Buenos Aires, Argentina/Bahia Blanca) finished with four points and senior Demetrius Bennett (Conshohocken, Pa./Plymouth-Whitemarsh (Neumann)) connected on his only shot, a three-pointer to total three points. Hicks contributed two points.
 
Kutztown remains on the road for its next game, Wednesday, Jan. 31 at Bloomsburg University at 7:30 p.m.