Shippensburg University dropped a 72-66 decision to Kutztown Golden Bears men’s basketball Wednesday night in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Eastern Division game at Keystone Arena.
Shippensburg (12-12, 7-10 PSAC) received a game-high 22 points from Jaydon Smith, who shot 7-of-12 from the field and 7-of-7 from the free-throw line. Smith has scored 52 points over his last two games and is 21-of-22 from the free-throw line during that stretch.
Kutztown (6-15, 3-13) shot 47.5 percent from the field and committed five turnovers. The Golden Bears made 8-of-10 shots over the final 7:08 of the first half to take a 40-33 lead at halftime and shot 55 percent in the first half.
Shippensburg opened the second half with an 8-0 run but did not lead by more than one point. A three-pointer by Josh McKoy gave Kutztown a 49-45 lead with 13:04 remaining. Shippensburg was unable to cut the deficit below four points late.
The Raiders endured a scoreless stretch from 3:55 to the 37-second mark. Kutztown missed two front ends of one-and-one free-throw attempts late, but Shippensburg did not capitalize.
The teams combined for 13 turnovers. Kutztown made four more field goals and held Shippensburg 10 points below its season scoring average.
Timmy Conner, starting for injured Markus Frank, scored 13 points and made three three-pointers. Trey Martin scored 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting, including 2-of-3 from three-point range, and added six rebounds.
Michael Dickson had five points, seven assists and seven rebounds. Jackson Boone also had seven rebounds.
Ben Rill and Sebastian Edwards combined for 12 points off the bench.
Josh McKoy recorded 14 points and 12 rebounds for Kutztown. Jordan Nkoa Abessolo added 15 points and 10 rebounds. Kidd Brizek scored 14 points, including 11 in the first half. Five Kutztown players scored in double figures.
Shippensburg travels to East Stroudsburg Warriors men’s basketball for a 3 p.m. game Saturday.
