MANSFIELD, Pa. --The Kutztown University men's basketball team (1-12, 0-7 PSAC) battled wire-to-wire against Mansfield (4-8, 2-5 PSAC) in its PSAC East opener, falling 78-74 at Decker Gymnasium Saturday afternoon.
As has been the case all season, the youth of KU led the way. Following his best performance of the season against Slippery Rock on Wednesday, freshman guard Juju Pagan (Tobyhanna, Pa./Pocono Mountain West) led KU with a season-high 23 points. Fellow freshman guard Jaiden McGhee (Townsend, Del./Middletown) wasn't far behind with 22 points and 10 rebounds. It's the Townsend, Del. native's third double-double of the season as he leads the Golden Bears in rebounds per game (6.2).
Both teams traded baskets to start the contest before an 8-2 run from the Golden Bears, started and ended by McGhee layups, saw KU take a 20-15 lead at the 11:22 mark of the first half. The Mounties responded with a 13-5 run to jump out to a 28-23 lead with under five minutes left in the first frame. KU cut the lead back down to four and entered the half down 37-33.
The Golden Bears came out of the locker room on fire to start the second half. Sparked by eight points from Pagan, KU went on a 14-3 run out of the locker room to take a 47-40 lead with 15:18 left in the game. It was the largest lead for the Golden Bears all game. The Mounties wasted no time battling back, retaking the lead just over two minutes later off a three from Idris Ali.
The back-and-forth battle continued late into the contest with the Mounties holding a 73-70 lead with 1:22 left. Camden Hurst provided the dagger from beyond the arc to make it 76-70 with 1:03 left. Mansfield then iced the game from the charity stripe and walked away 78-74 winners.
The Golden Bears did everything right below the basket in the loss, outscoring the Mounties 56-40 in the paint and out-rebounding them 36-28. The three-ball was KU's kryptonite, as it went 0-10 from beyond the arc compared to 8-14 (57.1%) from Mansfield. Five Mounties ended the game in double-figures led by Idris with 15 points while Julian Wilson had seven boards.
KU returns to Keystone Arena for its first home PSAC East game against Lock Haven on Wednesday, Jan. 10. Tip-off is slated from 7:30 p.m.
