Women's Basketball Comeback Bid Falls Short vs U Sciences

WEST CHESTER, Pa.-Looking to avoid its first regular-season losing streak since the first weekend of December of the 2017-18 season the West Chester University women's basketball team (1-2) was back in action on Wednesday night against No. 14 U Sciences (3-0) inside Hollinger Field House. West Chester battled hard but the talented U Sciences team held on for the 77-70 win.
 
The Basics:
Final Score: U Sciences 77 West Chester 70
Records: Sciences (3-0) West Chester (1-2)
Location: Hollinger Field House-West Chester, Pa.
 
How it Happened:

• West Chester got out to its only lead of the game early in the first quarter as the Golden Rams scored the first basket of the game to get out to the early 2-0, which was also West Chester's biggest lead of the contest. The two sides traded baskets for much of the remainder of the first quarter but a late run by U Sciences after the media timeout midway through the quarter allowed the Devils to take a 21-13 to the second quarter.
• In the second quarter, the game remained close as the two teams battled with Sciences narrowly outscoring its hosts 12-11 to carry a 33-24 to the halftime break. At the halftime break, Zhane Snow (Wilmington, Del./Concord) led the Golden Rams in scoring with nine points on 4-of-6 shooting while Taylor Hamm led all-scorers with 12 points in the opening 20 minutes.
• West Chester opened the second half on a 6-3 run to cut the deficit to 37-30, which triggered an early timeout from U Sciences. From this point forward the Devils outscored their hosts 16-12 to take a 52-42 lead to the fourth and final quarter of play.
• For the third game in a row for both teams, the highest scoring output of the game came during the final quarter of play as West Chester pressured its guests cutting the lead to as few five points. Unfortunately, the West Chester comeback bid ran out of time and after a pair of clutch free throws from Alex Thomas, the No. 14 Devils were 3-0 with a 77-70 victory over the Golden Rams.

 
The Golden Rams:

• Gabrielle Troisi (Norristown, Pa./Pope John Paul II) was the Golden Rams leading scorer pouring in 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting while freshman teammate Snow had another solid game with 15 points of her own on 6-of-9 shooting including a perfect 2-for-2 from deep.
• As the Golden Rams have done for much of the season the Golden Rams ended the contest with advantages in second-chance points, fast break points, and bench points as the Golden Rams held advantages of 13-8, 8-6 and 27-5 in each of these three categories.
• For the third game in a row West Chester ended regulation with an advantage on the offensive glass, this time outrebounding its guests by a margin of 9-to-7 on the offensive glass.

 
The Devils:

• Irisa Ye was the leading scorer for the Devils as she scored 20 points on an almost perfect 8-of-9 shooting and a perfect 1-for-1 from three-point range. Jordan Vitelli was close behind with 16 points of her own while Hamm registered 14 points to help lead the Sciences to victory.
• Sciences also ended the game with a 34-to-30 advantage in rebounds thanks to a plus-six advantage on the defensive glass.
• Sciences also ended the game with advantages in all three shooting categories as the Sciences went 28-of-52 (53.8 %) from the field while West Chester went 25-of-58 (43.1 %) from field goal range. Sciences went 6-of-13 (46.2 %) from downtown while West Chester went 6-of-16 (37.5 %) from long range. Finally, the Sciences ended the game with a slight advantage in free throw percentage as the Devils went 15-for-21 (71.4 %) while West Chester went 14-for-20 (70.0 %) from the charity stripe.

 
Up Next:
West Chester will be back in action on Saturday afternoon in the final game of a four-game season-opening homestand against Salem University with that game scheduled to tip-off at 1 p.m.