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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Staying Alive – Mounties Down Lock Haven 80-75 to Keep PSAC Playoff Hopes Alive

MANSFIELD – Joe Bell scored 28 points and recorded a double-double to lead Mansfield to a huge 80-75 win over Lock Haven in a key PSAC East win on First Citizens Community Bank Court in Decker Gymnasium Saturday afternoon.

The win, Mansfield's third in its last four games, keeps the Mountaineers PSAC East playoff hopes alive with two game remaining in the regular season.

"There was no question about it, that was a win we had to have," said head coach Rich Miller. "The key for us was getting Joe (Bell) some help in the second half and a couple of our guys stepped up and answered that challenge."

Bell led Mansfield to a 30-27 advantage at halftime, scoring 16 of his team-high 28 points in the first half. No other Mountaineer had more than four first half points.

Mansfield has depended on the PSAC's leading scorer all season long, but midway through the second half other members of the team stepped it up when Bell picked up his third foul of the game.

Bell was whistled for his third foul with Mansfield leading 48-45 at the 12:45 mark and the Mountaineers got clutch play from Charles Pemberton who scored six of the Mountaineers 10 points until Bell returned with just over seven minutes to play.

After back-and-forth lead changes, Lock Haven took a 69-64 lead on a layup from Wali Hepburn with 3:31 to go and still led by five points at 71-66 with three minutes remaining.

Charles Becoats buried his only 3-pointer of the day seconds later to close the gap to71-69 and another 3-pointer by Kamil Parzych put Mansfield back into the lead at 72-71 with just over two minutes left.

A Bell Jumper and two free throws by Parzych capped a 10-0 run giving Mansfield a 76-71 advantage with 74 second remaining.

Lock Haven cut the lead to 78-75 on a layup by Bootsie Walker with three seconds left but Rayn Krawczeniuk sealed the win by hitting two free throws in the last seconds.

The game featured a marquee matchup between the PSAC top scorer in Bell and the second leading scorer in Lock Haven's Wali Hepburn. The matchup didn't disappoint with Hepburn scoring a game high 30 points.

It marked the sixth double-double of the season for Bell who pulled down a game-best 10 rebounds while also recording five steals. Pemberton scored 14 points with eight boards while Parzych scored in double-figures for the first time in his career with 12 points, 10 of them in the second half.

Bootsie Walker and Kasheef Festus added 13 and 10 points respectively for Lock Haven.

The win gives Mansfield a 5-9 PSAC East mark, one game behind the loser of the Kutztown-Millersville game for the final PSAC East playoff berth. Mansfield has two games remaining in the regular season while Millersville, Kutztown and Lock Haven each have three games left.