CHESTER, Pa. - The West Chester women's basketball team kicked off the 2017-18 season on Saturday evening when the team squared off against Livingstone College in WCU's Carol Eckman Memorial Tournament. Saturday's contest - originally scheduled to be played on the West Chester campus – had to be moved to the Schwartz Center on the campus of nearby Widener University due to the ongoing renovations at the Hollinger Field House.
Despite the new surroundings, the West Chester offensive attack felt very familiar on Saturday as the Golden Rams used five scorers in double-digits to handily defeat the visiting Blue Bears 95-64 to improve to 1-0 to start the season.
"I think we did well today," said
West Chester Head Coach Kiera Wooden. "We looked our best when we were sharing the ball and playing unselfish - we took some great shots when we were open and luckily they were going in for us today."
The visitors got on the board first to go up 2-0 before the Golden Rams would answer back with a 12-0 spurt, capped off with a triple by senior Porscha Speller
(Lancaster, Pa./Lancaster Catholic) to put the home team up 14-2 with 6:36 to play in the opening quarter. Up 25-9, a layup by senior Mia Hopkins
(Pittston, Pa./Bloomsburg) followed by a Camden Boehner
(Gettysburg, Pa./Gettysburg) and-1 pushed the Golden Rams advantage to 21 at 30-9 with just 45 seconds to play in the first frame. Speller capped off the scoring for West Chester in the first quarter with an and-1 at the 16-second mark to give the home team its biggest lead of the quarter at 34-9. A jumper by Livingstone's Imani Payne ended the first frame with the scoreboard reading 34-11 in favor of West Chester.
The Golden Rams continued their dominance in the second half as the Blue Bears were unable to cut the deficit to any smaller than 19 points throughout the duration. Following back-to-back Livingstone points, the frontcourt duo of Hopkins and freshman Justyn Roberts
(Harrisburg, Pa./C.D. East) connected on a basket down low to push the home team's advantage to 49-27 with under a minute remaining. Neither side was able to add one any more points during the final 43 seconds of the stanza and the score remained 49-27 heading into the locker rooms.
Entering into the second half, West Chester was shooting 53% (18-of-34) from the floor and a blistering 90% (9-of-10) from the free throw line. Speller's 14 points in the first half led all scorers while Hopkins nearly notched a double-double through 20 minutes with eight points and eight rebounds.
The third quarter saw West Chester's lead balloon to 25 points on two separate occasions. With 25 seconds remaining in the frame, sophomore Gabrielle Troisi (Norristown, Pa./Pope John Paul II) found Roberts in the paint for a layup to put the home team up 63-38 before Speller connected on the back end of two free throws to close out the quarter with the Golden Rams on top, 64-39.
WCU kept the momentum rolling the fourth, highlighted by a triple from junior Alexis Anderson
(Allentown, Pa./Louis E. Dieruff) which gave the squad its biggest lead of the night (31 points) at 93-62. After a free throw by Anderson put the Golden Rams up 94-64 with under 30 seconds to play, Roberts would ice the game with a free throw to give West Chester the convincing 95-64 victory inside the Schwartz Center to start the season.
Coming off a 2016-17 season which saw her earn First Team All-PSAC honors, Speller did not disappoint in her senior debut – dropping a game-high 24 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field. Playing in her first game for the Golden Rams after redshirting last season, Hopkins tallied a double-double (14 points/16 rebounds) and a team-high eight helpers in the win while Roberts poured in 16 points in her West Chester debut. Troisi and Anderson each logged 10 points in the victory with Troisi adding 10 boards to earn her first double-double of the season.
I'Keya Bland led Livingstone with 13 points in the loss and Nina Robinson grabbed a team-high seven boards off the bench for the Blue Bears.
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