West Chester Drops Double-Overtime Contest At Mansfield, 106-102

Box Score

MANSFIELD, Pa. – West Chester put five players in double figures while posting a feverish comeback in regulation, but host Mansfield came away with a 106-102 double-overtime victory over visiting West Chester Tuesday evening inside Decker Gymnasium.
 
West Chester (5-7, 3-4 PSAC) has now dropped three of its last four while Mansfield (5-5, 3-4) ended its two-game skid with the home win.
 
Jr., F Tyrell Long (Philadelphia, Pa./Bishop McDevitt) finished with 21 points and a career-high 12 rebounds – posting his third straight double-double, dating back to last season – while Dashon Giddings (Philadelphia, Pa./Del. Valley Charter) and Jackson Hyland (Avondale, Pa./Kennett) each finished with 17 points and nine rebounds. Malik Jackson (Lansdowne, Pa./Penn Wood) had 18 for the Golden Rams, and Matt Penecale (Jenkintown, Pa./Abington) recorded 16.
 
Penecale hit both of his free throws with 12 seconds left in the second OT to make it a one-possession game at 105-102. However, Cedric Powell (16 points) connected on the second of his two foul shots with nine seconds to play to put the game out of reach. West Chester went a perfect 14-for-14 from the line in the two overtimes, including six of the team's eight points in the second extra session. But it was not enough to overcome Mansfield's effort from the field all night long.
 
The Mounties shot 56.1 percent from the floor (37-for-66), making the most of their attempts. The Golden Rams made 32 of 84 shots (38.1 percent) for the game. Mansfield made eight 3-pointers while West Chester struggled, finishing 4 of 24 from downtown.
 
Jackson nailed two very important free throws in the final 10 seconds of the first overtime that gave West Chester a 94-93 lead. However, Mansfield's Matt Tamanosky (31 points) hit one of two from the line with 1.8 seconds to go to send the game into a second overtime. He was the Mountaineers' leading scorer Tuesday.
 
West Chester finished the second half on a 22-6 run over the final five minutes to storm back from a deficit that reached as much as 19 at one point. Hyland knocked down one of two free throws with 50 seconds left in the second half that put the Golden Rams in front for the first time, 83-82. However, Mansfield's Jahyde Gardiner made one of his two free throws with 18 ticks left to knot things up, and that is the way the first 40 minutes ended.
 
Jackson's 18 points put him over 700 for his career. The sophomore has 701 points in just 40 career games (17.5 ppg).
 
The loss by West Chester marked just the third time in school history – and first in nearly 46 years – that the Golden Rams lost a game in which it reached triple digits. Two of those three losses have come at the hands of Mansfield. A 106-103 setback to the Mountaineers during the 1969-70 campaign was the other occasion.
West Chester returns home on Friday to host California (Pa.) in a crossover game at 7:30 p.m. inside Hollinger Field House.