RELEASE DATE: 2/7/03

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MOUNTIES USE INSIDE GAME TO BEAT MILLERSVILLE 76-69 – IAN CONNOR AND OMARI PEARSON COMBINE FOR 41 POINTS

MANSFIELD – Seniors Omari Pearson and Ian Connor combined for 41 points to lead Mansfield University to a key 76-69 win over Millersville in a PSAC East contest at Decker Gymnasium Saturday afternoon.

“Omari and Ian both had great games for us,” said head coach Vince Alexander. “We wanted to get the ball inside a little bit more than we have in last couple of games and did a good job of making that happen. If teams concentrate on stopping Omari then that opens Ian and if they try to stop Ian, that opens Omari.”

The Mountaineer established the inside game from the outset with Connor and Pearson combining to score the first 12 and 22 of Mansfield’s first 28 points of the game.

Connor and Pearson each scored 12 first half points, giving the Mountaineers a 32-30 lead at intermission.

The game would remain tight in the second half with Millersville taking their largest lead of the afternoon on a 3-pointer by Mark Gerhart for a 50-44 advantage nine minutes into the second half.

Connor then hit two quick lay-ups to pull to within two points before the Mountaineers would take the lead for good on a 3-pointer by Brett Longpre’ for a 56-55 advantage  with 7:53 to play.

Longpre’, who was held scoreless over the first 31 minutes of the game, would score nine of his 13 points in the final three minutes of the game

But it was the play of Connor that proved to be the difference with the senior big man scoring a game high 23 points while pulling down six rebounds. Connor is now just 48 points shy of 1,000 career points.

Pearson had his best all around game since suffering an injury in the first meeting between the two schools at Millersville. He connected on 8-of-10 from the floor for 18 points and pulled down a game best 10 rebounds to record his 13^th double-double of the season. Bill McNeil and Brandon DeShields each scored nine points.

“That was an important win for us not only because it was against Millersville and a big conference win, but because of the way we played in the loss to East Stroudsburg,” Alexander said.

“This is a senior laden team and the coaches didn’t really have to do a lot to motivate the players after that loss. They knew what they had to do and they went and did that today.”

Lost in the stats for the Mountaineers was the defensive play of seniors Glenn Jackson and Jason Roscoe who came up with key defensive plays over the final 10 minutes of the game.

Daron Pressley led Millersville (10-11, 3-4) with 21 points.

With the win, the Mountaineers improve to 18-4 overall and 5-2 in the PSAC East.  Mansfield remains in second place in the PSAC East, one game behind Cheyney, who defeated Kutztown 87-81 Saturday.

Mansfield will travel to Kutztown on Wednesday for a key PSAC East match up.