West Chester Powers Past Clarion on Sunday, 106-71

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CLARION, Pa. - Looking to bounce back from a 76-73 defeat at Gannon University yesterday, the West Chester University women's basketball team embarked on the Tippin Gymnasium on Sunday afternoon for a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) matchup against Clarion University.
 
The Golden Rams headed to the Tippin Gymnasium on Sunday eyeing its first conference victory after dropping yesterday's contest to Gannon by three, while Clarion returned to the court on Sunday at 2-2 coming off a 94-74 defeat at the hands of East Stroudsburg University.
 
Sunday's matchup pitted two teams from different ends of the spectrum against each other. Putting up 92.8 points per game, West Chester boasted the best offense is the PSAC, while Clarion came into the game giving up a conference worst 82 points per outing to its opponents.
 
Led by three scorers that tallied 20-plus points, the Golden Rams' offense proved much too potent for Clarion to handle, as West Chester cruised to a 106-71 victory on Sunday to earn the program's first conference victory of the season. The Golden Ram's 106 points marked the first time that the team had scored over 100 points in a game since 2014 and were the most by a West Chester women's basketball team since 2000-2001.
 
Clarion's Tracy Wiehe started the game off with a jumper to put the home team up 2-0 to begin the contest, but this would be the first and only lead that the Golden Eagles would have for the remainder of the day. Down 0-2, Porscha Speller (Lancaster, Pa./Lancaster Catholic) scored the game's next five points on her own to put West Chester up 5-2 with just over nine minutes to play. The visitors maintained a comfortable lead for a majority of the frame and back-to-back layups by Mia Hopkins (Pittston, Pa./Pittston) would give the Golden Rams its largest lead of the quarter (28-15) with under a minute to play in the first stanza. Camden Boehner (Gettysburg, Pa./Gettysburg) ended the first with two free throws to put West Chester up 30-17 after the first 10 minutes of action.
 
The Golden Rams maintained a double-digit advantage for the entirety of the second quarter, pushing the cushion to as many as 20 points on two separate occasions. Up 16 (52-36), a triple by Destiny Jefferson (Scranton, Pa./West Scranton) pushed the visitors advantage to 19 points (55-36) to end the opening half.
 
Following a layup by Clarion's Tynita White, West Chester ended the third quarter by scoring the final seven points of the frame to give the Golden Rams its largest lead of the evening at 76-52 heading into the final quarter. It was all West Chester in the fourth, as the visiting team outscored the Golden Eagles 30-19 in the fourth to claim the convincing 106-71 victory on the road.
 
Hopkins and Speller each logged 24 points in the win, while Hopkins added a team-high nine rebounds and two blocks in 37 minutes played. Entering the game having scored eight total points, Jefferson exploded for 20 points on a perfect 8-for-8 shooting from the floor. Lexi Bruno (Millville, N.J./Millville) handed out six assists to pace the West Chester offense, while Katherine Fisher (Ruttedge, Pa./Strath Haven) tied a season high with 11 points in the win.
 
Clarion featured four scorers in double digits, led by Jordan Bekelja's 16 points in 38 minutes played. Off the bench, Yasmin Lewis logged six points to go along with a team-high seven boards in the loss.