Speller Pushes West Chester Past Holy Family, 74-67

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Coming off a huge 106-71 victory over Clarion University on the road last weekend, the West Chester University women's basketball team headed the Campus Center in Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon to face off against Holy Family University in a non-conference matchup.
 
On paper, Sunday's game should have been an easy victory for the Golden Rams (4-1). West Chester's 92.8 points per outing entering the game were third most in the country, while the team's 50.2 shooting percentage and 1.57 assist to turnover ratio were also amongst the national leaders. Conversely, the Tigers have struggled to start the 2017-18 season – coming into Sunday's game winless and only scoring 54 points per contest. A quick look at these numbers would indicate that West Chester should have cruised to an easy win against Holy Family on Sunday, but Head Coach Melissa Dunne and the rest of the Tigers proved at home why statistics are only part of a team's story. Despite being down by three at the half, the Tigers managed to outscore the Golden Rams 24-18 in the third to take the 55-52 advantage into the final frame. West Chester trailed the home team for a majority of the fourth, until an and-1 from Mia Hopkins (Pittston, Pa./Pittston) knotted the game at 65-65 with just under three to play. With the score tied at 67-67, Porscha Speller (Lancaster, Pa./Lancaster Catholic) took her team and the game into her own hands, as the talented senior closed out the game on a 7-0 run on her own to wield her squad to a 74-67 come-from-behind victory on the road.  
 
Up two in the first quarter, the Golden Rams strung together four-straight points to push its advantage to 18-12 with 21 seconds to play. A last-second layup by Holy Family's Dana Dockery ended the first quarter to bring the score to 18-14 in favor of West Chester.
 
The second quarter was another close affair that saw three lead changes and neither side being able to build much of a lead. After a jumper at 1:24 by the Tigers' Dockery brought the home team within one (32-31), a layup by Gabrielle Troisi (Norristown, Pa./Pope John Paul II) would end the second stanza with the Golden Rams holding a slim 34-31 advantage.
 
Holy Family found its offense in the third quarter - outscoring the Golden Rams 24-18 to put the Tigers on top 55-52 entering the final frame.
 
Trailing 65-58, a jumper by Katherine Fisher (Ruttedge, Pa./Strath Haven) would spark a 7-0 West Chester run to knot the game at 65-65 with 2:52 to play in regulation. After a jumper by the Tigers' Dockery put the home back on top by two, Fisher once again answered with a layup to square the contest at 67-67 with just over two minutes remaining. It would be all Speller in the final moments, as the guard accounted for all seven of the final points scored in the game – including back-to-back free throws to seal the victory after Holy Family was forced to foul.
 
Speller's 20 points led three West Chester scorers in double figures and she also added nine rebounds and a team-high six assists in 37 minutes played. Camden Boehner chipped in 17 points in Sunday's victory, while Hopkins recorded her fourth double-double of the season with 15 points and 18 rebounds. Hopkins' 18 boards on Sunday are the most of any player in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) this season and marks the most rebounds in a game by a West Chester women's basketball player since 2011, when current Golden Rams assistant coach Allison Hostetter grabbed 18 rebounds against Clarion University.
 
Holy Family's Casey Thomas scored a game-high 22 points in the loss, while Alexis Hofstaedter contributed 11 points and a team-high six assists on Sunday afternoon.