Bloomsburg Downs East Stroudsburg in Men's Basketball

BLOOMSBURG -- The Bloomsburg University men's basketball team rallied from 12 points down in the first half and then held on for a 77-75 win over East Stroudsburg on Wednesday night in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division action.

The Warriors (11-5, 1-2 PSAC East) came out on fire in the game and quickly opened a 17-5 lead with 12:25 to play in the opening half. Bloomsburg (9-8, 1-3 PSAC East), though, came back to tie the score at 19-all by going on a 14-5 run. Billy Bryan (Denver, PA/Holy Name) started the rally with a pair of free throws and also added a three-pointer in the comeback.

East Stroudsburg regained a four-point lead, 25-21, before a Niko Traykov (Bulgaria) three-pointer and a Buddy Rose (Philadelphia/Mastbaum Tech) layup put the Huskies back in front at 26-25. After East Stroudsburg's Ronald Louis scored to give the lead back to the visitors (27-26), the Huskies closed out the half with a 12-6 run with Rose draining a three-pointer to help send the home team to the locker room with a five-point edge, 38-33.

In the second half the Huskies pushed their lead to 10 at 47-37 on a jumper from Matt Jefferson (Philadelphia/George Washington). Later a Channon Easley layup for East Stroudsburg closed the gap to four, 51-47, with 13:46 to play in the game. A little while later a three-pointer from the Warriors' Andy Heimbach made it a two-point game at 56-54 with 8:51 to play.

But, the Huskies answered with buckets from Jefferson and Bryan to go back in front by six, 62-56, at the 7:04 mark. Then with Huskies leading by 64-62, Bloomsburg used a 9-2 run, capped by Marko Vucajnk's (Slovenia) three-point play to make it nine-point game with two minutes to play.

East Stroudsburg, though, came back and when Ronald Louis hit a three-pointer with less than a minute to play it was just a four point lead for Bloomsburg at 75-71. But, the Huskies were finally able to seal the victory when Traykov hit a pair of free throws with 18 seconds to play for a five point Bloomsburg advantage. A three at the buzzer for the Warriors made the final, 77-75.

Jaren Burdine (Reading/Reading) led the Huskies with 20 points and 11 rebounds, while Bryan added 15 points, Rose 14 and Vucajnk 11.

East Stroudsburg was led by Easley with 17 points, while Darron Bradley added 16.

Bloomsburg returns to action on Friday night at the District of Columbia in a 5 p.m. start time.Huskies reurn to HuHu