The Shippensburg University men’s basketball team tied the school record for made 3-pointers in a game (18) in its Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) 83-58 win against West Chester University Wednesday evening.
SU scored well the entire game, shooting 45% from the field and a scorching 58% from beyond the arc. They also only missed two of their 15 free throws in the game. Coach Chris Fite talked about the importance of the team’s hot shooting.
“We encourage our guys to be aggressive. When you play teams that play zone like West Chester, you get more perimeter looks and fortunately our guys were knocking them down.”
The Raiders flexed their depth in the victory as they saw three players score in double figures and another three score nine points.
“Depth has been our story all season long, any night a different guy can and has stepped up and gotten 15 to 20 points,” Fite said. “We are very balanced and can take advantage of different matchups.”
John Castello attacks the rim against West Chester.
Junior Jake Biss led the way with a game-high 26 points to go along with eight assists and four rebounds. Biss shot a perfect 8-of-8 from the free-throw line. The bench duo of junior Kiyon Hardy and redshirt-sophomore Dom Sleva combined for 26 points. Sleva tallied 15 points with five rebounds and five assists, and Hardy poured in 11 points.
Starters Carlos Carter, Lamar Talley and John Castello each chipped in nine points in the victory.
Shippensburg outrebounded West Chester by 13, even though WCU was the No. 3 rebounding team in the nation. SU also held the PSAC’s leading scorer Robbie Heath to just 13 points on 6-of-18 shooting.
The Raiders picked up their first season sweep of the Golden Rams since moving into the PSAC Eastern Division in 2008-09.
Saturday afternoon against Mansfield University, Shippensburg used its balanced scoring attack once again as six players reached double figures in the 81-55 rout of the Mountaineers.
SU used a long 36-11 run that lasted until 13:57 remaining in the second half to build a 33-point lead.
Biss, Talley and sophomore Luke Nedrow each scored 11 points with Biss dishing out eight more assists. Carter added 12 points and Sleva scored 13 with nine rebounds.
Castello scored 10 points and pulled down 12 rebounds. With that performance, he became the third player in school history to reach 1,000 rebounds and joined the 1,000/1,000 club with 1,476 points and 1,002 rebounds.
He joined Dustin Sleva (2,071 points, 1,140 rebounds) and the late Keith Hill (1,780 points, 1,118 rebounds) in the exclusive club.
The Raiders will hit the road again on Wednesday night as they travel to Millersville to take on the Marauders at 7:30 p.m.
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