The Raiders entered Wednesday’s matchup with Cheyney knowing they needed a win and a Mansfield loss to qualify for the PSAC tournament.

The team got both and concluded its regular season by defeating Cheyney 76-53, clinching a playoff berth on senior night inside Heiges Fieldhouse. The SU victory marked the first time the Raiders swept Cheyney since the 2008-2009 season.

The Raiders were sluggish in the opening minutes and fell behind to Cheyney (2-25, 1-21 PSAC) early in the first period until Justin McCarthur connected with Jay Hardy for a beautiful alley-oop to ignite the Raider players and fans inside the arena. The momentum sparked a 15-2 Raider run that spanned more than 8 minutes to take the lead to 24-12.

The Raiders never let up and continued to dominate Cheyney on both sides of the ball, leading by as many as 31 points in the second half. Shippensburg shot 25-for-56 from the field, at 44.6 percent. Cheyney’s poor shot selection combined with its inability to land a bucket caused them to convert only 20 of 72 field goal attempts, or 27.8 percent.

Defense was the key to a Shippensburg victory. The Raiders implemented aggressive and press defensive schemes and consistently harassed Cheyney all night. Cheyney was held to a season-low 17.9 percent efficiency from three-point range did not have a scorer in double digits

Shippensburg controlled the glass to out-rebound Cheyney 57-38 and tied a season high 12 blocks. Freshmen Trent Bauer and Junior Tony Ellis finished with four and three blocks respectively.

Senior Dylan Edgar posted his PSAC leading 11th double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Ship’s only other senior, Sam Pygatt, was injured earlier in the season and did not play but received a huge hand.

Junior Tony Ellis came off the bench and scored a season-high 16 points and recorded a career-high three blocks. Freshman Justin McCarthur finished with 13 points and tied a season high with seven rebounds.

Shippensburg battled No. 3 Kutztown in the first round of the playoffs on Saturday. The Raiders lost both match-ups against the Golden Bears this season.

Saturday

Despite a double-double from senior Dylan Edgar in his final career game, the Red Raiders fell to Kutztown in the first round of the PSAC Tournament, 77-54.

The game was close in the first half but Kutztown used a 22-1 run in the second half to bury the Red Raiders, despite a number of strong performances for the team.

Freshman Justin McCarthur totaled 10 points with 4 assists and 4 rebounds while sophomore Abe Massaley added 10 points and was 6-6 at the free throw line.

Overall, Kutztown outshot SU at the free throw line 28-16, using SU’s fouls to their advantage and capitalizing on their opportunity to move on in the tournament.

The season ends with the Red Raiders improving by 10 games over last season, and their 13 wins are the team’s most since 2006-07. This should give the team hope for the future, as they are just completing coach Chris Fite’s second season.

With such a large improvement in one season of full control, the Red Raiders have reason to be optimistic for the future with hopes of advancing farther in the playoffs next season.

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