RELEASE DATE: 2/18/04

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MOUNTIES WIN 20^TH GAME OF SEASON IN 96-83 VICTORY OVER BLOOMSBURG -- LONGPRE’ AND PEARSON COMBINE FOR 51 POINTS

MANSFIELD – In their final regular season home game, seniors Brett Longpre’ and Omari Pearson combined for 51 points to lead Mansfield University to a 96-83 PSAC East win over Bloomsburg University Wednesday night at Decker Gymnasium.

With the victory the Mountaineers improved to 20-5 on the season marking the seventh time in school history a team has reached the 20 win milestone.

“Our goal all along has been to win the division and host the PSAC playoffs,” said head coach Vince Alexander. “Getting to 20 wins is nice, but the most important thing is winning the East and this win tonight will hopefully help us do that.”

The Mountaineers trailed early in the game before Ian Connor hit a lay-up eight minutes into the first half to give Mansfield a 17-15 lead. They increased that lead, behind Brett Longpre’s 18 first half points, taking a 54-36 lead into intermission.

The Mountaineer increased the lead to as much as 77-53 on a 3-pointer by Bill McNeal with 10 minutes left in the game before cruising to the win.

Longpre’ scored a game high 28 points – including six 3-pointers -- and pulled down seven rebounds to increase his career total to 1,734 and pulling to within 44 points of breaking the school all-time scoring record with two regular season games remaining. Omari Pearson recorded his 15^th double-double of the season with 23 points and 13 rebounds. Bill McNeal added 17 points while Ian Connor pulled to with 11 points of becoming the 22^nd 1,000 point scorer in school history with 14 points.

Freshman Ryan Nenstiel led Bloomsburg (6-18, 1-9) with 23 points.

The Mountaineers are 7-3 in PSAC East play and have a bye on Saturday before ending the regular season with road games at East Stroudsburg and West Chester.