Box Score
WEST CHESTER, Pa. – For a moment, it looked as if West Chester would pull out an exhausting victory over visiting Cheyney in the waning seconds. However, the Wolves came up with a steal with 38 seconds left in a two-point contest, and the visitors escaped with a 69-62 PSAC East men’s basketball win in front of a season-high crowd of 1,242 inside Hollinger Field House Wednesday evening.
West Chester (11-8, 2-5 PSAC East) dropped its second straight contest while Cheyney (13-6, 3-4) won its second game in three days to jump back into the thick of things in the Eastern Division race.
Kehinde Roberts was stripped of the ball by Sharif Bray with 38 seconds left in the game and the Golden Rams trailing, 62-60, and the Wolves hit seven of eight foul shots down the stretch to come away with the win.
West Chester withstood Cheyney’s outstanding shooting performance in the first half (13 of 23 from the field, including 6 of 9 from beyond the 3-point arc and 6 of 7 from the foul line) and a thunderous one-handed, kiss the rim dunk from Rob Townsend off an inbounds play early in the second half to cut the lead to a bucket with under two minutes remaining.
Despite Cheyney shooting the lights out of place in the first half, West Chester never trailed by more than 11 and found itself right in the thick of things at halftime, trailing 38-33. A lot of that had to do with the Golden Rams’ ability to take care of the ball. West Chester committed just nine turnovers in the entire game. Unfortunately, two of those miscues came at the worst time possible in the final 40 seconds of the tilt.
West Chester felt it had weathered Cheyney’s biggest storm and was still standing when it trailed by a deuce with possession of the ball and under a minute to go.
Lance McDowell led all Golden Rams with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Kehinde Roberts posted 12 points and grabbed seven boards. Miguel Bocachica registered 11 points off the bench.
Bray finished with 21 points. Bruce Kennedy and David Burton each notched 18 points. Burton added 10 rebounds as well.
West Chester returns to Hollinger Field House on Saturday afternoon for a 3 p.m. tip with Mansfield University.
