Hoover Powers Huskies to Win

BLOOMSBURG- Daniel Hoover (Lansdale/North Penn) scored 22 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the Bloomsburg University men's basketball team to a 64-55 victory over Millersville University on Saturday afternoon.

Millersville would take an early advantage over the first seven minutes of the first half as a Makal Stibbins dunk and a pair of Cullen Murry-Kemp jumpers gave the Marauders a 14-8 early advantage. The Huskies would mount a comeback and pull within two points with 4:27 remaining in the first half thanks to consecutive lay-ups by Drew Jerry (Philadelphia/Olney) and Michael Varanavage (Philadelphia/Archbishop Ryan). A Reggie Bates lay-up gave Millersville a 27-22 lead with 14 seconds remaining in the first half, but a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Jerry made the score 27-25 Millersville at halftime.

In the second half, Millersville would take a 33-27 lead over the first 2:12 before Bloomsburg began to rally. Bryson Mills (Williamsport/Benjamin Franklin) and Jesse Betar (Altoona/Altoona) both hit two lay-ups over the next three minutes, tying the game at 35-all with 14:54 remaining. From there, Varanavage finished a three-point play and Mills hit a running lay-up to give the Huskies a 42- 37 advantage with 11:15 to go.

A Stibbins lay-up cut the lead to two, 44-42 with 7:49 to go, but Hoover would take over from there. He scored nine of the Huskies next 13 points over a six-minute span to give the Huskies a 58-51 lead with just under two minutes left to play. Betar would ice the win by hitting four free-throws in the last 1:48.

Betar finished with 14 points, while Varanavage added 10 more. Bates led Millersville with 14 points.

With the win, Bloomsburg improves to 4-13, 1-3 in the PSAC East. The win breaks a 15-game Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division losing streak for Bloomsburg.

Bloomsburg returns to action on Wednesday when they host Shippensburg. That game gets underway at 7:30 p.m.