West Chester Advances To PSAC Semifinals With Win Over Bloomsburg, 99-89

Box Score

WEST CHESTER, Pa. – Sr., co-captain Troy Hockaday scored a team-best 21 points, and Cory Blake and R.J. Griffin each added 17, as host West Chester University stamped its ticket to a third straight conference semifinal with a 99-89 victory over visiting Bloomsburg in the quarterfinal round of the 2014 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Men's Basketball Tournament Tuesday evening inside Hollinger Field House.
 
West Chester (19-8) knocked off Bloomsburg (16-12) for the second time in two weeks and advances to take on Gannon (19-8), which needed double overtime to get past Slippery Rock, on Saturday at 1 p.m. on the campus of East Stroudsburg University. The host Warriors (26-1) will tip off against Mercyhurst (18-11) in the other semifinal. The Lakers were the only first-round winner from last Saturday to slip into the semifinals.
 
The Golden Rams, who took a 17-point lead into halftime, saw that margin shrink to four in the final minute of the contest, before hanging on to come out of Hollinger Field House with a win. Bloomsburg's Andrew Morgan drained a 3-pointer with 54 seconds left to make it a 93-89 ballgame. However, a pair of foul shots from both Shannon Givens and Matt Wiseley kept the Huskies at bay.
 
Wiseley put a bow on the playoff win with a breakaway dunk with two seconds remaining as West Chester scored the final six points of the game, following Morgan's 3-ball with just under a minute to play.
 
The Golden Rams dominated the first 20 minutes, jumping out to a 51-34 advantage at the break. Ryan McKeaney knocked down a pair of 3-pointers, and Griffin went 4-for-5 from beyond the arc to stake West Chester to its big lead.
 
Bloomsburg was able to make a run in the second half even though West Chester shot 57.1 percent from the field (16 of 28) after the break and made 16 of 20 free throws. The Huskies outscored the Golden Rams, 55-48, shooting 51.4 percent (19 of 37) themselves. The catalyst was Bloomsburg's five 3-pointers.
 
West Chester was held scoreless over a three-minute period midway through the second half that saw Bloomsburg cut a 14-point deficit (67-53) down to seven (67-60). However, the Rams went on a 10-6 run over the next four minutes to push the margin back to 13 with 6:33 to play.
 
The Huskies answered with a 23-14 spurt to crawl to within four late, but could not finish out the comeback bid down the stretch.
 
Wiseley finished with 15 points and eight rebounds. Bloomsburg was led by Dontahe Jordan and Alssene Saintilus, who each scored 23 points in the loss.
 
NOTES: West Chester's win marked the second time in three tries that the Golden Rams defeated Bloomsburg this year, avenging a loss on their own home floor to the Huskies earlier this year … Bloomsburg still leads the overall series with West Chester, 65-63 … West Chester has won seven of the last eight meetings between the two schools … the Golden Rams improve to 13-18 all-time in the PSAC Tournament, including 2-3 against Bloomsburg … the Rams are now 9-8 all-time in the quarterfinal round of the PSAC Tournament … with the win, West Chester makes its third straight appearance in the conference semifinals … head coach Damien Blair improves to 4-3 in the postseason and 2-0 against Bloomsburg … Jr., F Cory Blake now has 971 career points in 84 games … he is 29 points shy of becoming the 24th player in school history to score 1,000 points in his career.