SELINSGROVE, PA – Both the Susquehanna University men’s and women’s basketball teams have without a doubt their two most important games of the season looming as the 2002-03 campaign swings into its final week.

The Crusader men (15-7 overall, 9-3 Commonwealth) have already clinched a berth in the Commonwealth Conference playoffs and can capture their first regular-season league title in seven years with victories over Moravian on Wednesday and Widener on Saturday, while the Susquehanna women (12-9 overall, 5-7 Commonwealth) can still earn the fourth and final spot in the Commonwealth playoffs with a win over Widener on Saturday at Houts Gymnasium.

Saturday will be a special day at Susquehanna as two men’s players and four women’s players make their final regular-season appearances on the Houts Gymnasium court. In addition, there will be a men’s and women’s alumni game beginning at 11 a.m. and members of the Susquehanna All-Century Teams for both men and women will be introduced at halftime of each game.

MEN’S REPORT

The Crusaders took control of first-place in the Commonwealth Conference with conference wins against Juniata on Tuesday and at Messiah on Saturday.

Freshman center Walter Fowler (Dingmans Ferry, PA/Delaware Valley H.S.) led the way for Susquehanna, with 19 points, eight rebounds and five blocks in the win over Messiah after contributing eight points and three blocks against Juniata.

Fowler set a school record in the win, as he broke Bruce Merklinger’s record of 54 blocks set during the 1985-86 season. Fowler currently has 59 blocks to lead the Commonwealth with a 2.68 per game average. Fowler also leads the team in rebounds per game at 5.3 and is fifth on the team with an 8.8 point per game average.

Junior guard Nick Griffiths (Shamokin, PA/Shamokin Area H.S.) notched 16 points vs. the Falcons after scoring 17 against Juniata. Griffiths connected on nine three-pointers on the week, to surpass the school’s career record set by Tony Mennito from 1996-99. Griffiths now has 165 threes at Susquehanna and leads the team with 290 points (13.2 per game), 48 steals and 60 three-pointers (60-for-152, 39.2 percent).

Junior guard Chris Zimmerman (Coal Township, PA/Shamokin Area H.S.) also notched 16 points and five three-pointers at Messiah while adding 15 vs. the Eagles. Zimmerman posted six assists this week to add to his conference leading average of 5.74 per game.

Zimmerman also leads the team in scoring with an average of 13.4 per contest, while his three-point percentage (28-for-64, 43.8 percent) also is tops on the team.

Senior forward Tim Hurd (Montvale, NJ/Pascack Hills H.S.) also scored in double-digits in both games, adding 10 vs. Juniata and 14 at Messiah. Hurd hit only one bucket vs. the Eagles, but connected on eight free throws in eight tries.

Hurd is second on the team in free-throw percentage (97-for-119, 81.5 percent) while he is third in scoring (12.4 points per game) and rebounding (4.7 boards per contest).

Junior guard Dan Rathmell (Windsor, NY/Windsor H.S.) notched 15 points against Messiah to help the team to its double-overtime win. Rathmell has come off the bench to average 10.4 points per contest (fourth on the team) and 2.9 rebounds per game.

Sophomore forward Bubba Mills (Reading, PA/ Reading Central Catholic H.S.) also contributed in both games, pulling down six rebounds and adding six points at Messiah and notching eight points and nine boards vs. Juniata.

Mills is averaging 7.9 points per game and 4.1 rebounds, although he leads the team in field-goal percentage (67-for-116, 57.8 percent).

If the Crusaders win both this week games, they will win the conference regular-season championship for the first time since tying for the Commonwealth crown with Moravian in the 1995-96 season. Two wins this week would also give Frank Marcinek his 200th win as head coach at Susquehanna, just one win away from tying current athletic director Don Harnum’s school-record 201 wins.

WOMEN’S REPORT

Susquehanna’s first-half shooting woes continued in an 83-58 loss to Messiah on Saturday, as the squad shot 24 percent from the field and had fallen behind by 45-17 at the break.

The loss was not as meaningful as it could have been, as Widener’s 69-62 loss to Moravian kept the Crusaders in contention for the fourth seed in the Commonwealth Conference playoff race.

Senior Alison Ream (Elliotsburg, PA/Juniata H.S.) led Susquehanna with 18 points and seven rebounds as the squad outscored the Falcons 41-36 in the second half, shooting more than 52 percent from the field.

The resurgence was led by junior guard Andrea Seltzer (Altoona, PA/Altoona H.S.), who came off the bench to score a career-high 13 points on 3-of-6 shooting from three-point range, while senior Emily Kurtz (St. Marys, PA/St. Marys H.S.) contributed 10 points.

On Tuesday, Trish Noel (Gettysburg, PA/Gettysburg H.S.) provided another spark off the bench with a career-best 11 points as the host Crusaders defeated Juniata 52-45 despite shooting a mere 22 percent from the field in the first half.

Ream added 11 points, nine rebounds and a pair of steals for Susquehanna, who secured the win with a 28-of-36 performance from the foul line.

Sophomore Skyra Blanchard (Jonestown, PA/Lewisburg H.S.) pulled down a game-high 16 rebounds and added seven points, while sophomore Christine Lizzi (Barryville, NY/Eldred Cental H.S.) contributed five points, three assists and three rebounds.

Overall, Ream is the Crusaders’ leading scorer with an average of 13.8 points per game and is tied for second in rebounding with 4.6 boards per contest. She paces the squad in field goal percentage with an accuracy rate of .403. She has drilled more than 35 percent of her attempts from beyond the three-point arc to lead the team and has also chipped in 39 steals and a team-best 59 assists.

Ream ranks highly among the Commonwealth elite in several categories. She is third among top scorers, sixth among three-point shooters, eighth in accuracy from the charity stripe with a .744 percentage and 14th in field-goal percentage.

Seltzer has upped her average to 3.5 points per game in limited playing time while hitting 11-of-29 attempts from three-point range.

Fourth on the team with 6.3 points in nearly 17 minutes per game off the bench, Kurtz is averaging 1.8 rebounds per contest and has dished out 25 assists.

A reliable ball-handler among the reserves, Noel is averaging 2.3 points per game. She is tied for third on the squad with 20 steals and is sixth with 17 assists. Although she has taken only 40 shots on the season, she has made 16 of them for a .400 shooting percentage.

Blanchard is the Crusaders most formidable force in the paint, grabbing a team-high 172 rebounds while chipping in 3.7 points per contest. Joining Ream as the only players to start all 21 games this season, she has blocked a squad-best 20 shots and is tied for third with 20 steals.

Among conference leaders, Blanchard is fifth among top rebounders with 8.2 boards per game. She is ranked sixth in the Commonwealth with 0.95 blocks per game.

Also among team and conference leaders is junior Courtney Sokol (Falmouth, MA/Falmouth H.S.), who is second on the team in scoring with 7.8 points per game and tied for second in rebounding with Ream at 4.6 per game. She is currently eighth in the conference in blocked shots with 0.89 rejections per contest. She is also one of the top free-throw shooters on the Susquehanna roster, sinking 75 percent of her attempts from the line.