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KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The Kutztown University men's basketball team left the court of Pucillo Gymnasium on the campus of Millersville University Monday night, March 4, exhausted but exuberant. KU rallied from a double-digit deficit to fight all the way back to defeat the Marauders 86-70 in the First Round of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) and advance to the Quarterfinal Round at East Stroudsburg tomorrow, March 6, at 7 p.m. at Koehler Fieldhouse.
The Golden Bears (16-13 overall) advanced to the quarterfinals for the fifth straight season and will take on the Warriors (20-6) for the third time this season and sixth in the last two seasons. Last year these two teams met in the same round in the same venue with ESU coming out on top 85-71. KU has lost the previous five meetings and has not been on the winning side since a 96-92 win on Feb. 15, 2017.
Kutztown will look to turn the tides.
In the first round win over Millersville, the Maroon and Gold faced foul trouble, as six players picked up at least two fouls in the first half. But five Golden Bears reached double-figures in scoring to lead a second half surge, outscoring the Marauders 48-28 over the final 20 minutes to go into hostile territory and came out with the victory.
Anthony Lee (Willow Grove, Pa./Abington), Kutztown's second and the PSAC's fourth-leading scorer all-time with 2,271 career points, led the way with a game-high 26 points and added 12 rebounds to complete the double-double. He has now scored 801 points this season, needing just 17 to break the program-record for points in a season. Lee has also bumped his consecutive games streak in double-digits to 58.
Lee went 14-of-15 from the charity stripe to lead KU's team effort of 28-for-34 (82.4-percent) overall, the second-most free-throws made in a game this season, and a big reason as to how Kutztown was able to pullout the win.
Four other Golden Bears reached double-figures in scoring, including
Josh Townsend (Philadelphia, Pa./Imhotep Charter),
Facundo Arens (Buenos Aires, Argentina/Bahia Blanca),
Ricky Hicks (Coatesville, Pa./Polytech) and
Kyree Generett (York, Pa./William Penn).
Townsend, two days after scoring a career-high 24 points, tallied 17 points and 13 rebounds for his third consecutive double-double and fifth in the last six games. Townsend has grabbed double-figure rebounds in each of the last six games and 13 times this season overall.
Arens stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points, six rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals in 37 minutes of action as he was needed to play a large chunk of time due to some foul programs that plagued KU most of the first half and parts of the second.
Hicks, who was one of six Maroon and Gold players that had at least two fouls at halftime, finished with 11 points and two rebounds. The freshman Generett had 10 points, two rebounds and two assists in 16 minutes.
In the last meeting between the two teams last Wednesday, Feb. 27, KU trailed by just five, 50-45, at halftime, but East Stroudsburg blitzed Kutztown in the second half to the tune of a 62-47 run.
Like the Golden Bears, the Warriors are fast-paced and like to push the tempo offensively. The teams rank one-two in points per game (ppg) with East Stroudsburg scoring at an 87.5 ppg clip and Kutztown is second at 85.1 ppg.
For Kutztown, Lee is fifth in Division II in scoring at 27.6 ppg. He is fourth in PSAC in three-point percentage (42.0), first in three-pointers made (89) and second in free-throw percentage (89.9). Hicks ranks eighth in the PSAC with a 1.7 assist-to-turnover ratio. Townsend is sixth in the PSAC at 8.6 rpg.
East Stroudsburg has a stingy defense that likes to press full-court and force turnovers. It is second in the NCAA with 12 steals per game (spg) and its redshirt-senior point guard, Jakwan Jones, ranks fourth in Division II at 2.88 spg.
Look for another high-scoring, back-and-forth game between these two East rivals.
Live stats, video, game notes and PSAC Championship Central are available via the links above, which can also be accessed on www.kubears.com.
