• Box Score

CALIFORNIA (Feb. 8) – A mixture of hot shooting and solid defense on Wednesday night propelled the Vulcans to a 65-54 upset win of rival No. 13 IUP at the Convocation Center in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) West action.

With the victory, the California University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team improves to 13-10 overall and moves into a tie for fourth place in the league standings with a 10-7 mark. The win also snapped an eight-game losing streak by the Vulcans to the Crimson Hawks that dated back to the 2008-09 season. Meanwhile, IUP falls to 17-4 this season behind a 14-3 record in conference play.

Senior forward Steve Swiech (Greenock, Pa /Elizabeth-Forward) led four Vulcans in double-figures, scoring 14 points on seven-of-nine from the floor. He also collected a game-high eight rebounds while playing a career-high 34 minutes. Swiech is averaging 14.0 points over the last three games after shooting 75.0 percent (21-of-28) from the field.

Senior Douglas Jr. Appiah (Toronto, Ontario/Ascension of Our Lord) and freshman Tynell Fortune (Harlem, N.Y./Pocono Mountain West (Pa.)) both added 12 points, while redshirt junior Travon Vann (Frederick, Md./St. John's Catholic Prep) scored 11 points and registered four assists. Senior guard CJ Townes (Joppatowne, Md./Joppatowne) tied his season and career high with five assists against the Crimson Hawks.

Swiech put the Vulcans on the scoreboard first with a lay-up at the 18:21-mark. A three-pointer by Vann gave Cal U a 5-4 lead before IUP scored six-unanswered points to take a 10-5 lead with just over 14 minutes remaining. Swiech connected on a hook shot at the 6:02-mark to bring the Vulcans within one point at 19-18. The Crimson Hawks made a jumper to extend their lead to 25-20 with 2:13 left. Fortune connected on a three-pointer with under a minute remaining before IUP sank two free-throws to close out the half up 30-23.

The Vulcans started the second half on a 9-0 run to take a 32-30 lead with just under 16 minutes remaining. A three-pointer by senior Chad Tipton (Hanover, Pa./South Western) at the 13:28-mark extended the Cal U lead to 39-32. Fortune made a jumper to extend the Vulcans' lead to nine points, 46-37, with 8:49 remaining. An alley-oop dunk from Vann to Appiah followed by a fast-break dunk from Swiech put Cal U up 50-39 with just under six minutes left in the game. Fortune converted a traditional three-point play at the 3:03-mark to extend the lead to 59-45 before back-to-back Cal U dunks closed out the game.
 
For the game, Cal U shot 59.5 percent (25-of-42) from the field and 30.8 percent (4-of-13) from beyond the arc. Comparatively, IUP made a season-low 28.1 percent (18-of-64) from the floor and 25.9 percent (7-of-27) from three-point territory. The Vulcans out-rebounded the Crimson Hawks by a 35-29 margin and scored 32 points from inside the paint. Cal U also recorded 18 assists on 25 field-goals in the victory.

Senior Julian Sanders led all players 23 points (15 first half) after shooting just 8-of-21 from the floor. Classmate Ashton Smith was limited to only 10 points on 3-of-19 attempts after entering the game averaging over 18 points per game.

The Vulcans continue their homestand on Saturday, Feb. 11, when they host Lock Haven at 5 p.m. Live stats of the game will be available by clicking here.