Box Score
KINGS POINT, N.Y. – A 45 percent field goal percentage and
three players in double figures were not enough to propel the
Susquehanna men's basketball team to a win over USMMA as the
Crusaders fell 60-58 on Friday night.
SU led with as little as seven minutes to go in the game, but
the Mariners managed to barely out-score the Crusaders over those
final seven minutes to grab the two-point win.
Susquehanna is now 9-12 overall and 5-5 in Landmark Conference
games while USMMA improved its overall record to 12-9 and is 6-4 in
league action with three conference games remaining. The teams
split the regular season series after SU captured a 76-75 win at
home last month.
Senior Rob Estep (York, Pa./West York/Hobart)
led all scorers with 17 points to go along with his team-high six
rebounds. He also chipped in two assist and two steals.
Joining him in double figures were Spenser
Spencer (Seattle, Wash./Lakeside) and J.T.
Wilson (Sparta, N.J./Pope John Regional XIII), who added
14 and 11 points, respectively.
The Crusaders struggled to find their rhythm offensively,
dishing out only five assists all night while turning the ball over
18 times, leading to 17 Mariners points.
SU did lead for the majority of the first half. The Crusaders
took a five-point edge (15-10) at the period's midway point
following a Harley Sellinger (Mill Hall, Pa./Central
Mountain) layup. They built that lead to seven, 25-18,
after an Estep layup with 3:33 on the clock, but USMMA closed out
the half on a 6-2 run to knot the game at 27-all at halftime.
The Mariners took their first lead since the opening minutes at
the 18:30 mark of the second half thanks to a Richard Roach layup
that made it 29-28.
The teams swapped leads with SU taking an eight-point advantage,
47-39, following two Spencer free throws with 9:44 to play.
Another Mariners run, this time a 12-0 stretch, put Susquehanna
in a three-point hole (51-48) with 6:23 on the clock.
SU never held another lead in the game. Spencer did drain a
three to make it a two-point game, 60-58, with 56 seconds to play,
but the Crusaders were unable to put any more points on the board
as that remained the game's final score.
Next game: Saturday, Feb. 5 at Drew – 4 p.m.
