BOX SCORE

PHOTO GALLERY

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Mansfield men extend winning streak to five straight with 78-70 win over Cheyney

MANSFIELD – Tony Fannick scored 16 of his team-high 19 points in the second half to help lead Mansfield to a 78-70 win over Cheyney in a key PSAC East contest Saturday afternoon in Decker Gymnasium.

“Whatever it takes has become sort of a motto or ours,” said head coach Rich Miller. “We shot terribly in the first half but played tough on defense – that's what it took to get a keep the lead.”

“It was a nice win and puts us in a good spot in the conference. We got strong games from Tony (Fannick) and Yuseff (Carr) but also got nice performances from Lavail (Owens), Donny (Lyons) , Chuck Harper and Kurtis (Levere) off the bench.”

It was a key victory for Mansfield (13-5, 5-1 PSAC East) which extended its winning- streak to five straight games and keeps the Mountaineers a half game behind first place Kutztown (12-5. 5-0 PSAC East)I n the PSAC East. The Mountaineers travel to Kutztown for the final game of the first half of the season this Wednesday.

Despite cold-shooting from both teams in the first half, Mansfield managed to build a 27-20 advantage at halftime. But the shooting percentage for both teams improved dramatically in the second half with Cheyney using a 14-7 run over the first four minutes of the second half to tie the game at 34-34 on a layup by Antonio Boyd.

Mansfield countered with an 8-0 run, six of those points coming from Fannick, over the next two minutes to take a 43-34 lead on a jumper by Yuseff Carr at the 14 minute mark.
The Mountaineers would extend the lead to 10 points at 54-44 on a 3-pointer by Kurtis Levere with nine minutes to play and still led by 10 on a jumper by Carr with just under four minutes to play before Cheyney started to slowly close the gap.

Cheyney pulled to 65-60 on a pair of Boyd free towns with 2:22 left and trailed 71-65 with 34 seconds remaining before Fannick hit a pair of free throws and Carr added another two free throws to put the game out of reach.

Mansfield shot just 26.5% (9-34) in the first half but went 17-29 (58.6%) in the second half while out rebounding Cheyney 44-33. The Mountaineers also connected on nine 3-pointers, their most in a game this season.

Cheyney made just 23% of its first half shots but connected on 50% of its attempts in the second half while also making 21-of-22 free throws in the game.
Fannick hit four 3-pointers in recording his 19 points while also pulling down five rebounds and dishing out three assists. Carr just missed a double-double with 18 points and nine rebounds while blocking a season-best five shots. Derrison Anthony was hampered by foul trouble but still managed to score 10 points while Charles Harper came off the bench to score eight points.

Sharif Bray led Cheyney with a game-high 30 points with Bruce Kennedy chipping in with 12 points.