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Huskies Fall in Close Game to Mansfield

Game Stats, Play by Play

BLOOMSBURG—Mansfield University placed four players in double figures and held off a furious Bloomsburg rally to defeat the Huskies, 92-87, in men's college basketball action Wednesday night.

Mansfield, ranked 24th in the country, improves to 16-2, 3-0 in the PSAC, while the Huskies fall to 5-12, 0-3 in the PSAC.

The Huskies and Mounties saw the lead change hands three times to go along with six ties in the first eight minutes of the game. The Huskies broke the sixth tie when Ryan Nenstiel (Nuremburg/Weatherly) drained a three-pointer to give Bloomsburg a 25-22 lead with 11:50 to go in the half. Then, with the Huskies leading 31-28, the Mounties went on a 15-0 run to take a 43-31 lead when Brian Bryant hit a three-pointer.

Bloomsburg did cut the lead back to seven points at halftime with a mini 7-2 run highlighted by five points from Justin Scott (Philadelphia/Engineering and Science).

In the second half, the Mounties were able to maintain a five to seven point advantage for the first 10 minutes of the half. Then, with the score 65-58 in favor of Mansfield, the Mounties went on a 11-1 run to push the lead to 17 at 76-59.

Bloomsburg, though, would not quit converting nine of ten free throws in a five minute stretch along with a three-pointer from Ryan Hewitt (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee) and a layup from Justin Scott the Huskies cut the lead down to five, 78-73 with 3:48 to go.

After the Mounties increased the lead to nine, 84-74, with 1:36 to play, the Huskies went on one more run. Jason Benson (Pittsburgh/Schenley) hit a jumper and converted two free throws, while Justin Scott scored inside to make it a three-point game at 84-81 with 49 seconds to play. After Mansfield's Bill McNeil hit two free throws for an 86-81 lead, Benson drove the lane for a layup to cut the mark to 86-83. McNeill hit one of two free throws for an 87-83 lead with 35 seconds left before a John Owens (Philadelphia/Abington Friends) jumper made it 87-85 with 26 to play.

Mansfield, though, hit five of six free throws in the final 26 seconds to win by five.

McNeil led Mansfield with 26 points, while Ian Connor added 19 points and seven rebounds.

Bloomsburg got a career-high 22 points from Justin Scott, while Benson added 20 points. Owens finished with 17 points and four assists with Nenstiel getting 14 points.

Bloomsburg will host East Stroudsburg on Saturday at 8 p.m.