Carter Scores 32 Points and Pulls Down 19 Rebounds to Lead Mansfield Past Lock Haven 89-82 in Critical PSAC East Matchup

MANSFIELD – Malik Carter scored a career-high 32 points and pulled down 19 rebounds to lead Mansfield to an 89-82 win over Lock Haven in a key PSAC East matchup Wednesday evening on First Citizens Community Bank Court in Decker Gymnasium.

"We knew it would be game or runs and it was," said head coach Pat Zipfel. "Malik Carter was just unstoppable and really picked us up when we were down."

In what would prove to be a game of runs, Mansfield struck first rolling out to a 17-0 lead after the first four minutes of the game. The Mountaineers would lead by as much as 33-9 midway through the first half before Lock Haven put its first run together outscoring Mansfield 31-11 over the final nine minutes of the first half to close to 44-42 at halftime.

Lock Haven continued its hot-hand early in the second half building a 60-56 advantage before Mansfield settled down. The Mountaineers retook the lead at 62-60 on a layup by Carter two minutes later and held off Lock Haven for the remainder of the game.

Mansfield went up 81-76 on a pair of Carter free throws with two and a half minutes to play and would extend the advantage to 87-78 on two more free throws by Carter with under a minute remaining.

Mansfield, which shot over 80% from the floor over the first eight minutes of the game, shot 54% for the game and held a 44-33 rebounding advantage.

Carter scored 19 of his game-high 32 points in the second half including hitting 7-of-8 free throw down the stretch. His 32-point effort was the most points scored by a Mountaineer in a game this season and the most since Joe Bell scored 34 points in a win over Cheyney in 2015. Carter's 19 rebounds were also the most by Mountaineer this season and the most for a player since Bell pulled down 22 rebounds in a win over Clarion in 2013.

Mansfield also got double-digit scoring performances from Matt Tamanosky with 14 points while Da'Quan Jones contributing 12 points. Jahyde Gardiner and Cedrick Powell adding 11 points each.
Lock Haven was led by Amir Hinton with 28 points.

The win lifted Mansfield into a tie with Bloomsburg for fifth place in the PSAC East with a 5-7 conference mark and snapped a three-game losing-streak.

Mansfield host Gannon in a PSAC crossover game this Saturday.