Shippensburg, Pa. - Mercyhurst Men's Basketball defeated the host Raiders in the semifinals of the PSAC Tournament and now get a third chance at the Crimson Hawks. The Lakers play in their first PSAC Championship since the 2018-19 season when they fell to IUP 56-49, looking for some revenge this time around.

Mercyhurst has played the Crimson Hawks twice already this season with the two teams splitting. IUP got the win on their home floor, 80-67, in early January while the Lakers gave their counterpart their only loss of the season a month ago in a 56-49 final. That victory for Mercyhurst proved to have extra special meaning to it as it gave Lakers MiyKah McIntosh and Nicholas Lang the 100th wins of their careers.

2. Lucky Number Seven

Coach Manchel and company could match their longest winning streak of seven games in the 2022-23 campaign with a win over IUP as they have played some of their best ball of late. Over the hot run, Mercyhurst has averaged 82.2 points per game, scoring 84 or more points on four occasions including a season-high 105 against cross-town rivals Gannon in the regular season finale. They'll hope to use their stellar offense once again to help them grab one more win before heading into the national tournament.

3. Looking For Number Two

If the Lakers win the PSAC Championship, it would be just the second time doing so since joining the conference. Coach Manchel hoisted the trophy during the 2015-16 season after defeating West Chester 70-67. The team finished 22-9 overall during the year with a 15-7 record in conference, good enough for the second seed in the PSAC West, behind only IUP. Mercyhurst also defeated Shippensburg in the semifinals that year, hopefully spelling success for this group of Lakers.

4. Facilitator First

Michael Bradley has proven to be a great scorer over the course of his time at Mercyhurst, but he has been one of the better passers in recent history as well. To go along with his game-high 21 points in the win against Shippensburg, the native of San Antonio, Tx. also had seven assists. Those dimes helped him move up to 118 assists for the year, giving him the third most in a season over the last decade. Only H'ian Hale in the 2015-16 season (125) and Derrick Ellis in 2018-19 (139) had more over that span. Bradley now has two seasons in which he has eclipsed triple-digit assists, showing himself to be a playmaker in more ways than one.

5. Scouting IUP

The Crimson Hawks come off a hard-fought win over East Stroudsburg in the semifinals in which they won 67-64. IUP comes into the matchup 29-1 with their lone loss coming at the hands of the Lakers earlier in the year. They claimed three All-PSAC West First Team spots in Shawndale Jones, Dave Morris, and Tomiwa Sulaiman with Jones taking home the PSAC West Athlete of the Year award while Head Coach Joe Lombardi was named the Coach of the Year. Jones leads the team in scoring with 20.9 points per game, proving to be a very tough player to stop while Morris pitches in 15.3 and Sulaiman 12.6 to go along with 9.4 rebounds.