Power's Career-High 25 Leads Women Over Millersville, 74-68

Box Score

MILLERSVILLE, Pa. – Red-shirt freshman Rylee Power (Newtown Square, Pa./Marple Newtown) produced a career high 25 points to lead a short-handed West Chester women's basketball squad to a 74-68 victory against the Millersville inside Pucillo Gym Wednesday night.
 
West Chester (10-15, 10-11 PSAC) jumped out in front early and never trailed as they snapped a five-game losing streak while earning a season sweep over Millersville (9-17, 7-14) this winter.
 
Power entered Wednesday's tilt having scored just 28 points on the season. However, the Golden Rams dressed just six players due to a combination of injuries and suspensions.
 
Two other Golden Rams found themselves in double figures for the evening, including senior Mariah Traywick (Limerick, Pa./Spring-Ford), who contributed 15 points, three blocked shots and a pair of steals. Junior guard Porscha Speller (Lancaster, Pa./Lancaster Catholic) also added 16 points, to go along with five assists and a pair of steals.
 
Sophomore Gabrielle Nolan (Glenside, Pa./Abington) scored her first seven points of her career with the Golden Rams.
 
"Gabby passed on a lot of shots in the first half that she routinely makes in practice," said WCU head coach Kiera Wooden. "We pretty much yelled at her at halftime and told her, 'We are going to need you to shoot the ball today. I think she did that in the second half.'"
 
West Chester found itself up by as much as nine points heading into the second quarter as Power hit a jumper with 2:46. Speller scored 10 of her 16 in the first quarter, but the Marauders responded defensively.
 
"(Porscha) went on a tear early on. So, (Millersville) was sending two and maybe three players at her telling us that Porscha is not gonna beat us tonight."
 
The Golden Rams responded with Power.
 
"Rylee may not have scored a lot of points overall on the season, but every time she plays, she scores," Wooden added. "It was just a matter of her playing enough minutes to string together an impressive stat line, and I think she did that tonight."
 
Turnovers for Millersville became the deciding factor for the Marauders as West Chester added 16 points off those opportunities.
 
The Golden Rams have now clinched a home game in the first round of the 2017 PSAC Tournament with tonight's win. That game will be played on Monday night inside Hollinger Field House. The opponent is still yet to be determined as West Chester can finish in either third, or fourth, place in the league standings.
 
West Chester ends the regular season at home inside Hollinger Field House when they play Kutztown on Senior Day. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. The winner of that game will be the third seed in the postseason tournament while the loser will be the four-seed.