Bloomsburg Falls in Men's Basketball PSAC East Opener
EAST STROUDSBURG - The Bloomsburg University men's basketball team opened Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division play with an 83-73 loss to East Stroudsburg Wednesday night.
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The Huskies came out quickly and led by 10 points, 18-8, with 13:44 left in the first half on the strength of eight points from Matt Jefferson (Philadelphia/Engineering and Science). After the Warriors closed to within four points, 24-20, at the 10:26 mark, the Huskies used a 16-5 run, including a three-pointer from Billy Bryan (Denver/Reading Holy Name), to stretch its lead to 40-25.
After East Stroudsburg closed the gap to 10 points at the break, 42-32, the Warriors opened the second half of play with a 23-6 run to take a 55-48 lead with 15:48 to play. Darron Bradley keyed the rally with six points
At that point the Huskies lost the services of Ernest Cherry (St. Lucia) who went down with an ankle injury and left the court on a stretcher. There is no word on Cherry's condition.
The Huskies then rallied and cut the deficit back to within a bucket, 62-60, after Bryan hit a three-pointer and layup in less than a minute with 10:54 to play in the game.
But another East Stroudsburg run of 16-6 pushed the lead back to 12 points, 78-66, with 4:51 to play. However, the Huskies came back with a 7-0 run, with freshman Seve Cunningham (Wrightsville/Eastern York) netting four points, to bring Bloomsburg back to within five points, 78-73, with 1:45 to play.
Down the stretch the Warriors converted five of six free throws to seal the win.
The Huskies (3-11, 0-1 PSAC East) got 26 points and 12 rebounds from Jefferson. Bryan added 18 points and Mike Cheatle 10.
East Stroudsburg, 9-5, 1-0 PSAC East, was led by 26 points from Danny Hargrove with Naveen Hohiuddin getting 16 points.
Bloomsburg will return to action on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Indiana (PA).