Wheeling Jesuit Downs West Chester, 71-69, In NCAA First Round

Box Score

RICHMOND, Va. – West Chester dropped its Atlantic Region first round game to Wheeling Jesuit, 71-69, in the NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament inside Barco Stephens Hall Friday night.
 
West Chester (21-8) saw its season come to a close in the Atlantic Regional for the second straight year while Wheeling Jesuit (27-5) advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament to face Virginia Union, who defeated Shaw earlier in the day, 85-70.
 
Jasmen Clark (Temple, Pa./Oley Valley) missed a 3-point attempt with 18 seconds left and West Chester leading, 69-68. Wheeling Jesuit rebounded the basketball and made a short-range jumper with 8.5 ticks left to take the lead. That's when West Chester had one more trip down the court to try to add to its slimmest of margins. Benovy had the ball knocked away, and a foul was called on the Golden Rams with 2.5 seconds left. Wheeling Jesuit went to the line and hit one of its two free throws for the final margin.
 
Brittany Sicinski (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown West) posted a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. She finishes her brilliant four-year career in the Purple & Gold with 1,624 career points and is the school's all-time scoring leader. Benovy led all West Chester scorers with 16 points. Anna Kuntz (Camp Hill, Pa..Trinity) posted 13 points and added eight boards.
 
Dallas Ely (Montrose, Pa./Montrose) contributed nine points. She finishes her college career with 1,607 points and ranks second, behind Sicinski, on the all-time scoring chart.
 
West Chester, which trailed by nine at halftime, began its march back into the game during a very productive third quarter. The Golden Rams painted 26 points on the board – two fewer than the 28 they put up in the entire first half.
 
The Rams outscored the Cardinals again in the fourth quarter, and eventually took the lead 69-68 with two minutes left in the contest. It was the fifth-seeded Golden Rams' first lead of the game since the first quarter over the fourth-seeded Cardinals.
 
NOTES: West Chester Falls to 1-6 all-time in the NCAA Tournament … West Chester was making its second straight appearance in the NCAAs for the first time in school history … West Chester has reached the NCAA Tournament in each of head coach Kiera Wooden's first two seasons on the sideline … Wooden is the first head coach to lead her team to the national tournament in each of her first two years … West Chester has reached the NCAAs in three of the last five campaigns … this NCAA Tournament game marked the first time that West Chester and Wheeling Jesuit have played one another … one of the most successful senior classes will graduate with a four-year combined record of 79-35, including two NCAA appearances and a PSAC Eastern Division title this winter (ending a 5-year run by Bloomsburg atop the division) … the seven seniors career totals are listed below – numbers in parenthesis indicates where they rank all-time in school history, if in the Top 10 … four of the seven seniors appeared in the Top 10 all-time in at least one major category … the senior class combined to score 5,975 points in their four years (two of them five) at West Chester.
 
Brittany Sicinski (Downingtown, Pa.)
1,624 points (1), 619 rebounds, 378 assists (3), 230 steals (6)
 
Dallas Ely (Montrose, Pa.)
1,607 points (2), 559 rebounds, 308 assists (10)
 
Anna Kuntz (Camp Hill, Pa.)
831 points, 615 rebounds, 101 assists, 102 blocks (7), 126 steals
 
Kendall Benovy (Hershey, Pa.)
823 points, 547 rebounds, 63 assists, 59 blocks, 73 steals
 
Jasmen Clark (Temple, Pa.)
756 points, 267 rebounds, 250 assists, 199 steals (T, 8th)
 
Mariah Powell (Glen Mills, Pa.) – WCU three-year total
254 points 147 rebounds, 17 assists, 12 blocks, 19 steals
 
Tiffany Johnson (Elkins Park, Pa.)
80 points, 189 rebounds, 220 assists, 85 steals