Box Score
Postgame Quotes
MILLERSVILLE, Pa. – Allison Hostetter scored a career high 21 points and senior Natalie Winters added 17 off the bench as fourth-seed West Chester University upset No. 23 Millersville, 83-77, in a PSAC Women’s Basketball Tournament quarterfinal round matchup inside Pucillo Gym on Tuesday night.
The Golden Rams (19-9) advance to the PSAC semifinals for the third straight year and will take on California (Pa.) (22-6), who was a 72-49 winner over Indiana (Pa.). It marked the first win over Millersville (23-5) in the postseason since 2001 and was the school’s first postseason contest to go into OT in school history.
Freshman Alex Lennon made a wide-open layup underneath at the buzzer of the first OT period to tie the game 71-all and force another five minutes. West Chester then got a free throw from Hostetter and a layup from Keefer in the first two minutes of the second session to take a 76-73 lead that it would not relinquish.
Millersville’s Raquel Green nailed a pair of foul shots with three seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 64-64 and send the game into overtime, originally. Mashira Newman missed a layup along the baseline and Green hauled in the offensive board. Megan Stewart blocked Green’s put-back, but caught her opponent on the arm, sending Green to the line, down two, with a chance to tie. Green converted both shots.
With the game tied at 69 in the first OT period, Lennon blocked a shot by Newman with 5.5 seconds left. The ball went out of bounds to Millersville, and the Marauders found Newman underneath unguarded on the inbounds to give the hosts a 71-69 lead with 3.9 seconds remaining.
West Chester inbounded the ball, and Millersville knocked it out of bounds in front of their own bench with 3.1 left. Stewart then inbounded to Janelle Garber just over midcourt, who gave the ball back to Stewart once she crossed. Stewart then found a wide open Lennon underneath the basket for the game-tying bucket.
West Chester spent the first 34 minutes of the game battling back from deficits that ranged anywhere from 10 to six points. However, the Rams turned to the hot hand of senior Natalie Winters, who has struggled with an injured knee since the summer of 2008, to finally break through and take its first lead of the game with under seven minutes to play in regulation.
Consecutive 3-pointers from Winters gave West Chester its first lead of the contest at 51-50 with 6:24 remaining. The pair of shots from downtown completed a 10-point comeback by the Golden Rams in the second half, who had fallen behind 46-36.
Stewart finished with 12 points, four assists and four steals for the Golden Rams. Garber, Lennon and Mary Kate Serratelli all contributed eight points. Lennon grabbed nine rebounds and blocked three shots.
Green posted 21 points for Millersville and Ashley Moyer had 20. The Marauders, ranked third in the Atlantic Region entering Tuesday’s playoff game, will now wait until Selection Sunday to find out where they will play in the NCAA Tournament.
