WEST CHESTER, Pa.- Looking to run its winning streak to three games in a row, the West Chester University women's basketball team (3-2) will return home on Sunday afternoon to take on Holy Family (2-2) with that game scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
West Chester enters this contest riding a two game-winning streak after dismantling Salem on Saturday the 17
th before topping Lincoln on Tuesday the 20
th by a final score of 84-80. In this contest, West Chester trailed after the first quarter but it did not stay this way for long as the Golden Rams battled back in the second quarter outscoring their hosts 29-16 to claim a lead that would never be relinquished. Lincoln attempted to close the gap multiple times in the second half even cutting the deficit to as little as one point but West Chester was determined to pick up the victory, which they did winning by a final score of 84-80.
Destiny Jefferson (Scranton, Pa./West Scranton) was the leading scorer once again for West Chester as she poured in a career-high 27 points while teammates
Gabrielle Troisi (Norristown, Pa./Pope John Paul II) and
Alexis Anderson (Allentown, Pa./Louis E. Dieruff) scored 19 and 18 points, respectively. West Chester ended the game with a plus-three (40-37) advantage in rebounds, marking the second game in a row in which West Chester has out rebounded its opponent. West Chester also shot 26-of-55 (47.3 %) from the field including 7-of-18 (38.9 %) from three-point land. Additionally, West Chester also shot a season-best 25-of-35 (71.4 %) from the charity stripe in the victory. The Golden Rams also ended the game with a 15-12 advantage in second chance points although Lincoln held the upper-hand in points off turnovers, bench points, and points in the paint at the end of regulation.
Jefferson is now the teams leading scorer as she is averaging 18.2 points per game while Troisi is averaging 17.4 points per game with
Zhane Snow (Wilmington, Del./Concord) holding steady averaging 11.8 points per contest. Troisi is still the teams leading rebounder as she is averaging 9.8 rebounds per contest while also leading the team in assists per game with 4.4 assists per contest to open the 2018-19 season. Troisi also leads the team in steals per game as she is averaging 2.0 steals per game to start the year and she is tied for the team lead in blocks with an average of 0.4 blocks per contest.
Katherine Fisher (Rutledge, Pa./Strath Haven) has been consistent this season as she is fourth on the team in scoring averaging 9.8 points point per game while sitting second on the team in rebounding with an average of 5.8 rebounds per contest. Fisher is also tied for the team lead in blocks with an average of 0.4 blocks per game while she is third on the team in steals per contest averaging 0.8 steals per game over the course of the Golden Rams first five games.
Holy Family enters this contest coming off an exciting non-conference victory over one of West Chester's PSAC East Rivals in the Bloomsburg Huskies. Trailing late in regulation, Holy Family rallied to tie the score and send the game into overtime where the Tigers were able to gain the upper-hand outscoring the Huskies 13-7 to earn the 68-62 OT victory. Holy Family trailed by as many as four points with under two minutes to go in regulation before freshman Molly Masciantonio buried a tripe to cut the deficit to just one with 47 seconds left to play. Masciantonio converted a pair of free throws with 13 seconds left to tie the game at 55-55, thus, forcing overtime to decide a winner. In overtime, Holy Family scored the first six points of the extra session to give itself some breathing room. This early run proved vital as Holy Family captured the victory by six points downing Bloomsburg 68-62 to improve to 2-2 on the year while dropping the visiting Huskies to 3-2 on the season.
Masciantonio was the leading scorer for Holy Family pouring in 25 points including five points in the final two minutes to lead the Tigers to the come from behind victory. The freshman shot a solid 10-of-15 from the field including 3-for-6 from three-point range while also going 2-of-3 from the line. Teammate Jada Smith also found her way into double figures as she ended with a double-double scoring 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting while also ripping down 11 rebounds (three offensive, eight defensive) to pace the Tigers in rebounding. Overall, Holy Family ended the game shooting 42.9 % (24-of-56) from the field while also shooting 28.6 % (6-of-21) from three-point range. The Tigers also shot 60.9 % (14-of-23) from the charity stripe in the non-conference victory. Bloomsburg did manage to out rebound the Tigers 42-32, which marked the third time in the last four games that Holy Family has been out rebounded by its opponents.
West Chester is 15-9 all-time against Holy Family and the Golden Rams are currently riding a one-game winning streak against the Tigers as West Chester was a 74-67 winner on the road when these two teams met a year ago.
Following this game, West Chester will have one more tune-up on Tuesday, November 27
th on the road at Jefferson before jumping into PSAC Play on Saturday, December 1
st and Sunday, December 2
nd against a pair of dangerous PSAC West opponents in Edinboro and California (Pa.). December 2
nd will be the Golden Rams final home contest of the 2018 calendar year as the Golden Rams will close out 2018 and kickoff 2019 with a seven game roadtrip.
