FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Mansfield clinches home playoff spot and takes over sole possession of first place in PSAC East with 96-68 win over Shippensburg – Derrison Anthony scores career-best 32 points in win


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MANSFIELD – Senior Derrison Anthony scored a career-best 32 points to lead Mansfield to a 96-58 win over Shippensburg in a PSAC East contest Saturday afternoon in Decker Gymnasium.

The win, coupled with a 69-68 East Stroudsburg win over Kutztown, gave Mansfield solo possession of first place in the PSAC East and clinched a home playoff spot in the upcoming PSAC playoffs.

“That's an impressive stat line,” said head coach Rich Miller as he looked over the final game statistics. “You can't do much better than 13-for-15 from the floor. It was a fun game for us, especially for the seniors.”

Mansfield's (17-7, 9-3 PSAC East) four graduating seniors; Anthony, Yuseff Carr, Donny Lyons and Lavail Owens were all honor during pregame ceremonies and took that energy to the court quickly rolling out to a 10-0 lead highlighted by a thunderous dunk by Owens that fired-up the crowd.
The Mountaineers led 13-0 four minutes into the game and by as much as 19-4 on a Kyle Bradley layup after eight minutes of play.

Shippensburg (8-16, 3-9 PSAC East) would close the gap to as little as 40-34 with just over two minutes remaining in the half on a 3-pointer by Craig Van Scyoc before Mansfield took a 48-38 lead into halftime behind Anthony's 18 first half points.

Shippensburg closed to 54-47 six minutes into the second half but Mansfield went on a 24-5 run over the next eight minutes taking a 78-52 lead on a 3-pointer by Anthony that effective any hope of a Shippensburg upset.

“Don't get me wrong, it's great that we clinched a playoff spot and a home playoff game,” said Miller. “But we have so much more to accomplish before the end of the season. I think this group of guys knows that. We want to win the division title, the conference championship and earn a place in the NCAA playoffs before we're finished.”

All four seniors had outstanding games led by Anthony's 32 points. Carr just missed a double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds while Owens finished with 11 points including 3-of-5 shooting on 3-point attempts. Lyons, the hero of the win over Bloomsburg earlier in the week, just missed scoring in double figures with 8 points while freshman Kyle Bradley had 10 points off the bench.

Will Royal led Shippensburg with 13 points and nine rebounds with Craig Van Scyoc adding 12 points and Dane Lauber 10 points.

Mansfield has now earned a PSAC playoff berth in four of Miller's six seasons at the helm of the program including in each of the last three seasons.

The Mountaineers will battle Kutztown this Wednesday at Decker Gymnasium before traveling to Cheyney Saturday to end the regular season.