Shippensburg University men’s basketball split a pair of games this past week, falling at Millersville 78-60 on Wednesday before defeating West Chester 85-74 on Saturday. The team now sits at 12-11 on the season, 7-9 in conference play.

Wednesday’s contest saw Millersville (15-7, 10-5) get off to a hot start, pulling ahead 13-4 early in the first half. SU was unable to mount any type of comeback, trailing by 17 at halftime and as much as 26 in the second half.

Redshirt junior Michael Dickson, senior Denzel Figueroa and sophomore Jaydon Smith each had 10 points, tying for the team lead. Figueroa also snagged 10 rebounds to post a double-double. Millersville made nearly half their shots, shooting 49% from the field compared to SU’s 37%.

The Raiders returned home on Saturday and didn’t waste any time against the Golden Rams (17-6, 11-5), who entered the contest in first place in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) East division.

Shippensburg led 24-21 with 8:57 left in the first half before going on a 19-2 run, pulling ahead 45-24 before entering the locker room up by 19. The Raiders shot 62% from the floor in the first half.

West Chester came out of the locker room rejuvenated, fighting back to make it a one-possession game, trailing 56-53 with 11:24 remaining. They got within two points of SU with 6:51 left, but the Raiders responded with a 9-0 run and controlled the rest of the game.

SU head coach Chris Fite spoke on staving off WCU’s comeback

“When you’re in those shaky moments, you don’t want to dwell on it … you try to get them to focus on the next possession and pushing a reset button, and we eventually did that,” said Fite.

Smith was the star of the Raiders’ offense, putting up a career-high 30 points, shooting 4-of-4 from three and knocking down 14 free throws. 

“My teammates found me in great spots, my shots were falling, it feels great,” said Smith. “Most importantly, we got the win. I don’t really care about individual stats, but just to get the win, that’s the best part about it all.”

Redshirt junior Markus Frank also had one of his best performances of the season, scoring 25 points. He spoke on defeating WCU after losing to them earlier this season. 

“The same thing happened last year,” said Frank. “We played them there, they beat us, we played them here, and we won. I’m just glad we got to protect our home court.”

Shippensburg men’s basketball has a pair of road trips on the schedule for this week. They will travel to Kutztown to play the Golden Bears at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, before heading to the Poconos to take on East Stroudsburg Saturday at 3 p.m.

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