PSAC Men's Basketball Athletes of the Week/Weekly Report - 12
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Lock Haven, Pa. - East Stroudsburg's Duane Johnson and Edinboro's Isaiah Prince are the PSAC Men's Basketball Athletes of the Week after both led their teams to a pair of wins last week to improve their squads' respective place in the divisional standings. Both earn a weekly honor for the first time this year.
Both PSAC Freshmen of the Week are familiar faces as Mansfield's Joe Bell earns the East honor for the fifth time but for the first time in three weeks. Clarion's Winfield Willis takes home the West award for the first time in four weeks but for the fourth time this season.
PSAC East Athlete of the Week
Duane Johnson, East Stroudsburg
Junior, Forward
Lansdowne, Pa./Penn Wood
Johnson averaged 20.0 points, 9.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists and shot 50 percent from the field (14-of-28) and 92.3 percent from the free throw line (12-of-13) to help lead East Stroudsburg to wins over Cheyney and Kutztown to pull within a game of first place in the PSAC East. He also committed just three turnovers in 77 minutes of playing time. Johnson began the week with an 11-point, five-rebound performance in an 87-73 win over Cheyney on Wednesday. He then scored a career-high 29 points, and grabbed 13 rebounds in ESU's 93-86 double-overtime win over Kutztown. He made 9-of-17 shots, 11-of-11 from the charity stripe and grabbed nine of his 13 rebounds on the offensive end to help the Warriors to a 19-12 edge in second-chance points over the Golden Bears. He had 25 of his points in regulation and had a momentum-changing dunk in the second overtime.
PSAC East Freshman of the Week
Joe Bell, Mansfield
Freshman, Forward
Pottstown, Pa./Pottsgrove
Bell earns his fifth East Freshman of the Week honor of the season after averaging 23.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and shooting 74.1 percent from the floor (20-of-27) in Mansfield's two games over the last week. Although the Mounties dropped both road games to West Chester and Shippensburg, it was not on account of Bell, who made a perfect 12-of-12 from the floor on Wednesday against the Golden Rams. He also made 6-of-7 free throws and grabbed eight rebounds to go with his career-high 30 points. He followed that up with 17 points and nine boards against Shippensburg on Saturday. Bell has now scored in double figures in 11 straight games.
PSAC West Athlete of the Week
Isaiah Prince, Edinboro
Junior, Guard
Pittsburgh, Pa./Imani Christian Academy
Prince helped Edinboro to a pair of wins last week by averaging 27.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 steals as the Fighting Scots pulled to within a game of fourth place in the PSAC West and the corresponding final spot in the PSAC Tournament out of the division. Prince accounted for over 40 percent of Edinboro's scoring on the week as he made 22-of-35 shots from the floor (62.9 percent), including 7-of-11 from three-point range (63.6 percent). In 'Boro's 65-62 win over California on Wednesday, Prince scored 28 points on 11-of-19 shooting, including 4-of-7 from beyond the arc and also added five rebounds. He followed that up with a near-identical performance against Lock Haven on Saturday as he scored 27 on 11-of-16 from the field and 3-of-4 from three-point range along with four rebounds and four steals. His field goal with 18 seconds remaining proved to be the game-winner in the Scots' 68-66 win.
PSAC West Freshman of the Week
Winfield Willis, Clarion
Freshman, Guard
Baltimore, Md./St. Paul's
Willis helped the Golden Eagles to a split of their two games last week as he averaged 19.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.0 steals while shooting 13-of-22 from the field (59.1 percent) and 10-of-11 from the free throw line (90.9 percent). Willis recorded his eighth 20-point game of the season in Clarion's 88-75 win over Slippery Rock on Wednesday as he scored 22 along with two assists and two steals. In Saturday's three-point loss to first-place IUP, Willis had 17 points, three boards, two assists and two steals.
Team Notes
Bloomsburg
In the Huskies loss at Millersville senior Larry Webster scored his 1,000th career point. Webster is the 24th player in school history to reach the milestone. Webster is now 21st in career scoring with 1,026 points (tied with Steve Bright). He needs 47 points to move past Jay DeShields into 20th place ... Bloomsburg scored 82 points in the win over Cheyney. The Huskies are now 12-0 when scoring more than 70 points and just 3-6 when scoring less than 70 ... With 85 made three-pointers, Lorenzo Christmas needs just one more to move into a tie for 10th all-time in school history ... The Huskies 15 wins this season are the most for the team since the 2000-01 season when the Huskies won 20 games for coach Charlie Chronister.
California
Cal U is tied for fifth place in the divisional standings after splitting with Edinboro and Gannon last week … The Vulcans lost 65-62 in the final minute on Wednesday to the Fighting Scots before rallying to a last-second 68-67 win over the Golden Knights on Saturday … Senior F Steve Swiech is averaging 12.5 points over the last six games after posting his fourth career double-double on Wednesday … Last week, Swiech became the first Cal U player to earn academic all-district honors from CoSIDA in recent program history … Senior Chad Tipton broke his career high for three-pointers on Saturday by hitting the game-winning shot (52nd trey of the year) with 7.0 seconds left at Gannon … The Vulcans have won the last five meetings against the Golden Knights … Cal U will host rival IUP on Wednesday with the game airing on Pittsburgh CW (tape delay).
Cheyney
Jason Sabb tallied 72 points in a week that featured the Wolves going 0-3. In two of the contests he recorded double doubles, his first two of the season. Sabb ranks among the leaders in the conference in scoring. Sabb has led Cheyney in all but eight games including the last eight. Sabb also converted 13 of 13 from the line against University of the Sciences a season high in both attempts and makes. He also grabbed a season high 13 rebounds against Bloomsubrg … The nine steals the Wolves recorded against East Stroudsburg and the seven blocks against Bloomsburg were a season highs … The Wolves ran into a pair of hot shooting teams this past week … University of the Sciences converted 65% from the field and East Stroudsburg converted 64% from behind the arc, both season highs … Cheyney looks to right the ship this week at Millersville and Shippensburg.
Clarion
Senior forward Paul McQueen became the 27th known player in school history to score 1,000 career points when he reached the milestone Wednesday. McQueen has 1,021 career points and is the 13th player under 24th year head coach Ron Righter to reach 1,000 career points ... Freshman guard Winfield Willis recorded his 8th 20-point game of the season when he scored 22 vs. Slippery Rock Wed. Adding 17 vs. IUP Saturday, Willis has 369 points on the year, the third most by a Clarion freshman since 1970. He passed 1995 PSAC Rookie of the Year Shawn Bellis (358) Saturday and is closing in on the school's 4th all-time leading scorer Terry Roseto (374). Kwame Morton, the school's all-time leading scorer, is No. 1 with 513 points in 1991 ... So. forward Mike Kromka was named a Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-District 1st team player Thursday. His brother, Joe, a senior at Carnegie Mellon, also earned the award.
East Stroudsburg
ESU (14-8, 10-6 PSAC) moved within one game of first in the PSAC East with two road wins, 87-73 at Cheyney on Wednesday and 93-86 (2OT) at first-place Kutztown on Saturday ... Five players scored double-figures in both games as ESU averaged 90.0 ppg ... Fr. G Mike Tobin had career-high 28 points in first career start at Cheyney, including 6-7 from 3-point line ... Tobin then scored 11 of his 14 points in the 2nd OT, including two 3's, in the win at Kutztown ... Tobin's older brother, Mike, an All-PSAC East pick last year, had a career-high 22 points for the Warriors from 2008-11 ... Mike scored 35 points as a FR (2007-08), Matt has 181 ... Tobin and Whis Grant (306) have combined for 487 points (22.1 per game) as freshman guards ... Jr. F Duane Johnson set career-highs with 29 points and 13 rebounds at KU, and surpassed his previous high of 26 in an 83-70 win at KU in the PSAC quarterfinals last year.
Edinboro
Late-game heroics from some unlikely heroes led to a pair of road wins this past week. Edinboro claimed a 65-62 win at California(Pa.) after trailing by 15 points in the first half. Sam Moore gave the Fighting Scots the lead with a three-pointer with 47 seconds left. The senior had missed his last eight three-point attempts over the previous three games. Cory Somerville, a career 47 percent shooter from the free throw line, then made a pair of free throws with ten second left for the final margin … The Scots were on the verge of losing at Lock Haven before scoring the final five points for a 68-66 win. Clint Nicholson’s three-pointer tied the game at 66-66 with 1:10 remaining. Following a Bald Eagle turnover, Isaiah Prince hit a pull-up jumper in the paint for the winning points with 18 seconds to play. Bobby Davis sealed the win when he blocked a layup at the buzzer.
Gannon
Gannon dropped to an even 10-10 overall and 8-8 in the PSAC with losses last week to 13th-ranked Indiana (Pa.) and California (Pa.) … The Golden Knights dropped both games after their opponents pulled away late … Against Cal, the Vulcans drilled a three-pointer with seven seconds left for a one-point victory … Against IUP, the Crimson Hawks held a two-point lead with eight minutes left before pulling away … Darrell Blanton nearly averaged a double-double with 17 points and eight rebounds during two games last week … Blanton recorded his eighth double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds against California (Pa.) … Oscar Macias netted 13 points off the bench against the Vulcans, reaching double digits for the second time in the last six games … Brandon Belt scored a career-high 23 points against IUP, hitting three three-pointers and grabbing seven rebounds.
IUP
The 13th-ranked Crimson Hawks went 2-0 last week with wins over Gannon and Clarion to move to 17-3 overall and 14-2 in the conference, good for first in the PSAC West … In IUP’s 59-48 win over Gannon, Sr. G Ashton Smith scored 17 points while So. F Marcel Souberbielle added a season-high 14 points and So. C Danny Ayebo scored 11 … The Crimson Hawks boasted balanced scoring in their thrilling 68-65 home win over Clarion, as four players scored in double-figures … Sr. G Julian Sanders led the team with 18 points while Smith had 14 points and six assists and Souberbielle and Jr. G Anthony Wells each added 10 points.
Kutztown
Kutztown (14-6, 11-5) saw its 10-game winning streak come to an end at the hands of ESU on Saturday. The Golden Bears overcame a double-digit deficit late in regulation, but were unable to make some timely defensive stops and free throws. The game featured 18 lead changes and 16 ties … KU stifled the Raiders on Wednesday to hold Shippensburg to its second-lowest point total and second-lowest field goal percentage of the season. Devon McBride leads KU with 21.2 points per game, followed by Nate Edwards (18.4), Micah Fraction (15.9), and Eric Brennan (13.0) … Brennan is the top rebounder at 9.8 per game.
Lock Haven
Lock Haven is coming off a pair of PSAC West losses last week … LHU fell on the road at Mercyhurst before being edged 68-66 at home to Edinboro in a thriller that came down the game’s final seconds … LHU is 0-19 on the year and 0-16 in conference play … Lock Haven has now lost 38 straight games dating back to its last win (Dec. 4, 2010 vs. Bloomsburg) … A huge bright spot is the play of true-freshman guard Terrell Johnson, who is averaging 12.5 points per game … Sophomore Anthony Baker continues to provide a spark off the bench … He’s averaging 11.1 points per game in 17 games … Despite not starting a game all year Baker has been a key – he netted a career-high 29 points at Mercyhurst … Freshman Julian Bond hit six three pointers for a career-high 18 points in the loss to Edinboro … Lock Haven hosts SRU on Wednesday as The Haven takes part in the PSAC’s “Hooping for a Cure.”
Mansfield
The Mountaineers road woes continued with losses at West Chester and Shippensburg during the week … Mansfield is now 0-10 on the season in road games and hasn’t won a game away from the friendly confines of Decker Gymnasium since posting a 81-73 victory at Bloomsburg on 2/16/11 for a total of 13 straight losses away from Decker … Head coach Rich Miller is one victory shy of becoming their fourth head coach in the Mountaineers 111-year basketball history to record 100 wins … Freshman Joe Bell tied a school-record by making all 12 of his shots from the field on the way to scoring a season-high 30-points at West Chester … Bell has now scored in double-figures in each of the Mountaineers last 11 games … Bell now has 302 points on the season, the most by a freshman since Bill McNeil scored a freshman record 502 points in 2003.
Mercyhurst
The Lakers went 1-1 last week ... They beat Lock Haven, 95-68, at the MAC February 1, as nine different players scored at least seven points while a tenth, Jamal Turner, dished out 10 assists ... Terrence Ingram led Hurst with a career-high 15 points on 6-6 shooting ... As a team, Mercyhurst shot 66.1 percent from the floor and recorded 30 assists-both records in the Gary Manchel era ... The Lakers then lost, 73-71, at Slippery Rock February 4 ... Luis Leao scored a season-high 27 points on 11-17 shooting, including 3-3 accuracy from deep ... Bill Weaver's putback with 30 seconds left in regulation tied the game, eventually forcing overtime ... At 14-6 overall and 12-4 in the PSAC, the Lakers are in second place in the Western Division-two games behind IUP and two games ahead of Slippery Rock and Clarion ... Hurst hosts Clarion Wednesday in a crucial division contest ... It then heads to division-leading IUP for another important matchup Saturday.
Millersville
It was an up-and-down week for the Marauders, defeating then-PSAC East leader Bloomsburg 75-68 at halftime but losing 81-70 at West Chester … Millersville has won just one regular season game at West Chester since 1995 … Elijah Obade totaled 22 rebounds and five blocks in the two games. He has 10 or more rebounds in five consecutive games and in 12 of 19 this season. He’s also blocked four shots five times. His 17 points and 12 boards against West Chester gave him his sixth double-double of the season … Larry Grant scored 24 against West Chester, giving him five 20-point games this season. That’s the most by a Marauder since Reggie Bates totaled 15 and Charlie Parker totaled 10 in 2007-08 … Mike Seibert’s steal against West Chester gave him 100 for his career.
Shippensburg
Shippensburg edged Mansfield on Saturday ... Senior Craig Van Scyoc scored a career-high 24 points on Saturday ... Van Scyoc’s 24-point effort was just two shy of tying Jordan Stasyszyn’s SU season-high total of 26 points ... SU tied a season-high by making 56.3 percent (9-of-16) from three-point range, while shooting 54.5 percent overall – the 13th time this season that they have shot 50 percent or better in a game...the 90 points scores by Shippensburg against Mansfield is the most the Raiders have totaled against a PSAC team this year ... In two games against Mansfield this season, sophomore Dylan Edgar has gone 18-of-23 from the floor and scored 39 points while adding 18 rebounds ... Van Scyoc and senior John Corrigan were two of the five student-athletes selected Thursday to the 2011-12 Capital One Academic All-District 2 Team sponsored by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Slippery Rock
The Rock ended a two-game losing streak last Saturday with an OT win over PSAC-West #2 Mercyhurst ... Jr. C Luiz Santos' 15-point, 11-rebound “double-double” was his second against Mercyhurst. He had 10 points and 10 rebounds in The Rock's 64-62 loss Jan. 14 in Erie. His first “D-D” was a 12-point, 10-rebound effort Dec. 9 in a loss to Bloomsburg ... Saturday's win was the 70th recorded by Kevin Reynolds in 108 games (four seasons) as The Rock's head coach ... Saturday's win gave The Rock a split in the season series vs. Mercyhurst for the second consecutive winter and evened the all-time series record at 19-19 ... The Rock has now outrebounded its opponents in 17 of 20 games this winter ... The Rock's victory total after 20 games this winter matches the 2008-09 team's effort and is one shy of last year's mark. That benchmark is significant because SRU advanced to the PSAC semifinals in 2008-09 and claimed a PSAC runner-up finish and earned an NCAA tournament berth last winter.
West Chester
West Chester picked up a pair of wins over teams chasing them in the league standings to solidify its hopes for the team's first playoff berth in two years ... WCU topped Millersville, 81-70, at home Saturday, marking the 15th win in the last 17 meetings against the Marauders inside Hollinger Field House ... The Golden Rams have now won five of their last six heading into a week where they will play the first- and second-place teams in the standings.
Previous 2011-12 Athletes of the Week
1/30 - East Athlete: Devon McBride, Kutztown
East Freshman: Whis Grant, East Stroudsburg
West Athlete: Matt Lee, Mercyhurst
West Freshman: Adam Blazek, Gannon
1/23 - East Athlete: Jason Sabb, Cheyney
East Freshman: Whis Grant, East Stroudsburg
West Athlete: Darrell Blanton, Gannon
West Freshman: Adam Blazek, Gannon
1/16 - East Athlete: Eric Brennan, Kutztown
East Freshman: Joe Bell, Mansfield
West Athlete: Julian Sanders, IUP
West Freshman: Callon Dailey, Mercyhurst
1/9 - East Athlete: Devon McBride, Kutztown
East Freshman: Corey Blake, West Chester
West Co-Athletes: Bryan Theriot, Edinboro & Devin Taylor, Slippery Rock
West Freshman: Winfield Willis, Clarion
1/4 - East Athlete: Dontahe Jordan, Bloomsburg
East Freshman: Joe Bell, Mansfield
West Athlete: Torrance Timothy, Slippery Rock
West Freshman: Adam Blazek, Gannon
12/20 - East Athlete: Terrance King, East Stroudsburg
East Freshman: Joe Bell, Mansfield
West Athlete: Matt Lee, Mercyhurst
West Freshman: Terrell Johnson, Lock Haven
12/12 - East Athlete: Nate Edwards, Kutztown
East Freshman: Joe Bell, Mansfield
West Athlete: Ashton Smith, IUP
West Freshman: Winfield Willis, Clarion
12/5 - East Athlete: Trevon Johnson, Bloomsburg
East Freshman: Jerrod Johnson, Cheyney
West Athlete: Darrell Blanton, Gannon
West Freshman: Winfield Willis, Clarion
11/28 - East Athlete: Lance McDowell, West Chester
East Freshman: Reggie Charles, Shippensburg
West Athlete: Devin Taylor, Slippery Rock
West Freshman: Adam Blazek, Gannon
11/21 - East Athlete: Ed Hall, Bloomsburg
East Freshman: Matt Tobin, East Stroudsburg
West Athlete: Julian Sanders, IUP
West Freshman: Jeremy Posey, California
11/14 - East Athlete: Micah Fraction, Kutztown
East Freshman: Whis Grant, East Stroudsburg
West Athlete: Winfield Willis, Clarion
West Freshman: Tynell Fortune, California