Senior day victory moves KU up in program history
By Jenny Mosley
The KU men’s basketball team extended their winning streak to 14 on Saturday Feb. 18 when they defeated Millersville 90-78 on senior day. KU still sits atop the PSAC East with two games remaining in their regular season.
The 14-game winning streak is the longest the program has seen since 2009-10. The Golden Bears (22-2, 18-2) also moved into fourth place in program history for wins in a season and tied last year’s team for most PSAC victories.
Millersville kept things interesting for most of the first half, even taking its only lead, 31-30, with four minutes remaining in the half.
KU responded with 11 unanswered points. Howard Sellars’ three-pointer with seven seconds before the buzzer brought KU up 48-38 entering halftime.
The second half saw KU up by 10, 65-55 with 12 minutes remaining. Millersville would continue to push, scoring eight in a row to close with five for the first time in the second half.
KU always had an answer though, as Josh Johnson and Dan Cuevas both made layups on consecutive plays to help push the lead back up to nine. Johnson drained a three-pointer with less than two minutes left to give the Golden Bear a double-digit lead for the rest of the game.
Johnson was a force all afternoon, falling one rebound short of his second consecutive double-double. In his last regular season home game, Johnson recorded a season-high 26 points, including a career-best 3-for-4 from the 3-point range.
Cuevas also almost nabbed a double-double from off the bench with 15 points and eight rebounds.
Ethan Ridgeway dropped 13 points and dished out a game-high seven assists.
Ridgeway now has 409 assists on his career, moving him into third place in program history.
Anthony Lee rounded out KU’s double-digit scorers with 11 points while adding three assists.
Sellars finished his game with nine points total, his third straight game scoring nine or more points. Fellow seniors Ryan Connolly and Austin Beidelman added eight points and four assists each. The Golden Bears final senior, Martin Dietrich, had a career-high two steals.
Off the bench, KU outscored Millersville 39-19 and recorded 17 points off of turnovers.
The Golden Bears are now ranked 6th in DII basketball.