News Release

CHESTER, Pa. — Junior center Ron Michael scored a season and career-high 20 points as Widener (13-9, 7-5 Commonwealth Conference) defeated Susquehanna (3-19, 0-12 Commonwealth Conference) 63-55 Saturday afternoon.

The Pioneers ended the game on a 18-4 run and kept their Commonwealth Conference playoff hopes alive with two games to play.

Michael was 8-of-10 from the field and also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds as he started in place of junior center Kris Clarkson who was sidelined with an injury.

Senior forward Matt Sheaffer scored 17 points, while fellow senior forward Casey Stitzel scored 13. Both seniors were playing in their final home game of their Pioneer careers.

Susquehanna, who took the Pioneers to overtime in their first meeting, had a 51-45 lead with 5:18 left to go in the contest.

Michael, who entered the latter part of the second half with four fouls, hit a jumper with 4:41 left to cut the Susquehanna lead to 51-47. A steal and dunk by sophomore guard Essien Ford with 4:23 cut the SU lead to two.

Widener tied the score with 3:33 left when Michael scored on a layup and re-took the lead when Stitzel scored with 2:58 left making the score 53-51.

Michael would then score the next four Widener points, before Susquehanna finally stopped the run with a tip-in by Chad Lauer with 58 second left to make the score 57-53.

Junior guard Brandon Blakey hit two foul shots with 41 seconds left for a six-point margin, and Sheaffer along with Stitzel each made two foul shots to give Widener a 63-53 lead with 13 seconds to go.

Widener held the lead for the majority of the first half, building the lead as high as seven (18-11), before Susquehanna cut the lead to three points at the half, 26-23.

Susquehanna used a 9-0 run to take a 37-31 lead in the second half with 12:59 left and built the lead as high as 48-40 with 7:12 left on two foul shots by Bubba Mills.

Mills finished with game-highs in points with 21 and rebounds with 12. Matt Effler had ten points for Susquehanna.

Widener travels to Lebanon Valley at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. The Pioneers are currently a half-game ahead of Elizabethtown, who lost to LVC Saturday afternoon.

Newspaper Box Score
Susquehanna vs Widener University
2/12/05 3:20 p.m. at Schwartz Athletic Center, Chester, Pa.
At Schwartz Athletic Center, Chester, Pa.
WIDENER UNIVERSITY 63, SUSQUEHANNA 55
SUSQUEHANNA (3-19, 0-12 CC)
Bubba Mills 8-13 4-7 21; Matt Effler 5-7 0-0 10; Chad Lauer 3-9 0-0 6; Rob
Dombroski 2-6 1-1 6; Mike Malko 2-10 0-0 5; T.J. Parry 0-6 3-4 3; Pat
Williams 1-1 0-0 2; Brad Okonak 1-3 0-0 2; Brian Wimmer 0-1 0-0 0. Totals
22-56 8-12 55.
WIDENER UNIVERSITY (13-9, 7-5 CC)
Ron Michael 8-10 4-8 20; Matt Sheaffer 6-16 2-3 17; Casey Stitzel 4-13 5-5
13; Essien Ford 1-5 4-4 6; Brandon Blakey 0-2 5-6 5; Brooke Tidswell 1-4 0-0
2; Malcolm Thomas 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 20-54 20-26 63.
Susquehanna...................   23   32  -   55
Widener University............   26   37  -   63
3-point goals-Susquehanna 3-19 (Rob Dombroski 1-3; Mike Malko 1-5; Bubba
Mills 1-3; T.J. Parry 0-3; Brad Okonak 0-1; Chad Lauer 0-4), Widener
University 3-13 (Matt Sheaffer 3-7; Casey Stitzel 0-3; Essien Ford 0-2;
Brandon Blakey 0-1). Fouled out--Susquehanna-Matt Effler, Widener
University-None. Rebounds-Susquehanna 40 (Bubba Mills 12), Widener
University 36 (Ron Michael 9). Assists-Susquehanna 7 (T.J. Parry 4), Widener
University 6 (Matt Sheaffer 2; Brandon Blakey 2). Total fouls-Susquehanna
19, Widener University 13. A-350
Commonwealth Conference game