FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Donny Lyons leads Mansfield to 81-73 win over Bloomsburg – Mounties close in on PSAC playoff berth

Box Score

BLOOMSBURG – Donny Lyons keyed a 9-2 run over the final 90 seconds of the game to lift Mansfield to an 81-73 win over Bloomsburg in a key PSAC East contest Wednesday night at Nelson Field House.

Mansfield, which remains in a first place tie with Kutztown after the Golden Bears beat Cheyney 82-80 Wednesday night, also closed in on a PSAC playoff berth. Mansfield is now 8-3 on the season, two games ahead of Bloomsburg (6-5) and three games ahead of Cheyney, East Stroudsburg and Millersville. Mansfield holds the tie-breaker against Bloomsburg, East Stroudsburg and Millersville with the top four teams from each division advancing to the playoffs.

With Mansfield holding 72-71 lead Lyons, who scored a season-best 14 points in the game, jammed home a dunk with 1:21 left to increase the lead to 74-71. He then stole the ball seconds later which led to two Josh Dupuy free throws and 76-71 lead with just under a minute to play.

Yuseff Carr added two more free throws with 33 second left to increase the lead to 78-71 before Bloomsburg cut the lead to 78-73 on a pair of free throws by Dontahe Jordan ten seconds later. A free throw by Tony Fannick one second later gave MU a 79-73 advantage and a Carr layup with 12 second remaining gave Mansfield its biggest lead of the game and sealed the win.

“It's not every game where you push a button and it works,” said head coach Rich Miller. “But it did tonight with Donny and Kurtis. They gave us great minutes and really turned things around for use.”

Mansfield got 22 points off the bench in the first half with Lyons scoring 10 points and Kurtis Levere adding eight over the first 20 minutes and Kevonte McClain four points as the two teams battled to a 35-35 tie at halftime.

The game was still tied at 69-69 with four minutes to play before Lyons hit two free throws to give Mansfield what would prove to be the lead for good.

“It wasn't so much what we did right over the final minutes of the game,” said Miller. “It was that we stopped doing things wrong. We played great defense and got the stops when we needed them the most.”

Derrison Anthony led four Mountaineers in double-figures with 18 points with Yuseff Carr recording a
double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Tony Fannick added 12 points, 10 of them coming in the second half.

Dontahe Jordan led four Bloomsburg players in double-figures with a game high 22 points and also pulled down nine rebounds. Larry Webster scored 18 poins with TGrevon Johnson and Lorenzo Christmas adding 15 and 13 points respectively.

Mansfield remains in first place in the PSAC East with a 16-7 overall and 8-3 division record. The Mountaineers have three games remaining in the regular season including two at home starting with Shippensburg at Decker Gymnasium Saturday afternoon.


2010-11 Men's Basketball Standings
School Conf Overall
East
Mansfield
8-3 16-7
Kutztown
8-3 15-8
Bloomsburg
6-5 10-13
Cheyney
5-6 15-8
East Stroudsburg
5-6 12-11
Millersville
5-6 10-12
West Chester
4-7 13-10
Shippensburg
3-8 8-15