With every champion, comes a story.

That story usually involves hard work, dedication, adversity and sometimes luck. But for the Shippensburg University men’s basketball team, winning the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championship game was no fluke.

The Raiders used an endless amount of hard work, dedication and learning from the lowest of lows of a grueling 3–23 season just three years ago to turn the tide for the program.

On Sunday, the Raiders were crowned champions, knocking off Kutztown University 73–63 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championship.

“It’s tremendous,” SU head coach Chris Fite said. “I am so happy for our guys and the work that they have put in. Kind of the trials and tribulations that we have had over the last couple years, we’ve certainly been moving in the right direction, but it’s certainly great to get over that hump. It’s hard to win a championship and for us to have done that, it just says a lot about the character of our guys.”

Kutztown gave the Raiders everything they could handle early on, but SU finished the game on a 23–9 scoring run with 7:30 left to secure the double-digit win. SU struggled to find its shot from the floor, shooting less than 38 percent, but the Raiders knocked down 6-of-9 shots and went 9-of-9 from the charity stripe in the final seven minutes.

The Golden Bears focused their efforts on Dustin Sleva and held him in check, as Sleva turned in his lowest point total of the season, finishing with 11 points and nine rebounds.

Despite a frustrating night for Sleva, the Raiders would not be denied. Abe Massaley stepped up for SU, scoring 21 points — 16 of which came in the second half — in the win. Massaley has been a leader for SU since he arrived, and was the only player to have gone through the struggles of a three-win season alongside Fite.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Massaley said. “It’s a humbling feeling. It just shows what hard work and believing can do. When you believe in something and put the work in, things can really happen.”

Sunday’s performance by Massaley was typical of his usual playoff performance, as he was clutch for the Raiders in last season’s PSAC Tournament, knocking down a game-winning shot at Kutztown before silencing the Golden Bears once again with a phenomenal second half.

“Some guys just give me more fuel, and when it comes to [Kutztown], they just bring that fire and that dog out in me,” Massaley said. “I don’t like them guys and I’m pretty sure they don’t like me, but that’s how it goes.”

This season has been a historic one for the Raiders, who spent part of the season in the Top 5 of the Division II Rankings, going 26–3 to set the single-season win record, while knocking off two Top 5 teams in back-to-back days in Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Kutztown to win the PSAC Championship.

“It’s nice to be making history with the team,” Fite said. “One of the things we’ve done all along is that we have tried to remain focused on the next game, and not get distracted by bigger, grander things and that has served us well up to this point. We’re hoping we can continue to break new ground here in the national tournament.”

The Raiders earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament and received the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic Region for their efforts. The Raiders will battle Virginia Union University Saturday in the first round.

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