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WEST CHESTER, Pa. - The No. 23 West Chester University men's basketball team returned to Hollinger Field House on Saturday looking to improve on its already historic 11-0 record. Standing in the way of the Golden Ram's 12th straight victory would be Head Coach Pat Zipfel's 4-6 Mountaineers from Mansfield University. Although the visitors threatened with back-to-back triples to tie the game with ten minutes to play, the nationally ranked Golden Rams seemed to hit every big shot down the stretch to take the 72-63 win in a game where the home team never trailed.
With the win, West Chester improves to 12-0 overall behind a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) leading 8-0 mark in the league play. Saturday's victory not only brings the Golden Rams within one game of tying the program record for longest winning streak ever (13-0), it also keeps West Chester undefeated and as one of only five unblemished teams remaining in the NCAA DII at the conclusion of the weekend.
The home team took the lead right away following a layup by
Tim Toro (Scranton, Pa. / Abington Heights) to start the game, but Head Coach Damien Blair's squad would be unable to stretch that advantage to any more than six points for the duration of the opening stanza. Back-to-back free throws by the Mountaineers' Jeremiah Worthem cut the West Chester advantage to just one (27-26) with under a minute to play, before freshman standout
Evan-Eric Longino (Furlong, Pa. / Germantown Academy) connected on a long three ball to put the home team back up four (30-26) with 30 second remaining. Following a Mansfield timeout, MU's Cedrick Powell found Gerasimos Koutoufas for a layup underneath as time expired to bring the first half score to 30-28 in favor of the Golden Rams.
Trailing 45-37 at the 12:29 mark in the second half, the Mountaineers used four points from Andreas Katopodis paired with a triple from Malik Carter to storm back and knot the game at 45-45 with just under 10 minutes to play in regulation. Although set back on its heels momentarily, West Chester did not miss a beat, as junior high-flyer
Frank Rokins (Plainfield, N.J. / St. Mary's) added to his season-long dunk reel with a thunderous jam to quickly put the home team back on top, 47-45. The Mountaineers kept it close for a majority of the final minutes but the home team just seemed to every shot they needed to down the stretch. After connecting on two back-to-back three pointers, junior
Jackson Hyland (Avondale, Pa. / Kennett) really took the air out of Mansfield's sails by connecting on a triple from nearly 47 feet out as the shot clock expired to extend the West Chester cushion to 64-52 with 1:38 to play. The home team closed out the game by hitting eight-straight from the charity stripe to claim the 72-63 victory at home on Saturday.
The Golden Rams outshot the Mountaineers 42% (22-of-53) to 34% (18-of-53) from the floor on Saturday, while holding the advantage in both rebounding (44-31) and points in the paint (26-16).
Hyland dropped in a team-high 16 points in the win and Rokins, Toro and
Matt Penecale (Jenkintown, Pa. / Abington) each tallied 12 points for the Golden Rams. Toro's nine rebounds were the most for West Chester on Saturday, while Penecale's seven assists led all players.
Jeremiah Worthem's 16 points led three Mountaineer's in double figures and he also paced the Mansfield attack with nine total rebounds in the loss.
