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WEST CHESTER, Pa. - Riding a three-game winning streak, the West Chester University men's basketball team returned to the Hollinger Field House on Saturday evening to entertain crosstown rival Cheyney University on WCU Senior Night.
Only fittingly, it was the Golden Rams' two Senior Night honorees who made the biggest impact on Saturday's Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division battle, as
Tyrell Long (Philadelphia, Pa. / Bishop McDevitt) dropped a team-high 27 points and
Steve Smith (Ambler, Pa. / La Salle) tallied a career-high 14 points to push West Chester past Cheyney 107-65 on Saturday afternoon.
With the victory, the Golden Rams improve to 18-4 overall behind a 15-4 mark in conference play. Saturday's win was the fourth in a row for WCU and marked the third time in the last four games that West Chester eclipsed the 100-point plateau.
Fueled by four triples from Smith, the home team started the game up 26-4 with just under 13 minutes to play in the opening frame. The Golden Rams maintained an advantage between 20-30 points for the majority of the stanza, until a layup by Long with 53 seconds remaining gave West Chester its biggest cushion of the first half (59-18) with under a minute to play. Cheyney's Amir Boney closed out the half with a layup to bring the score to 59-20 in favor of West Chester heading into the locker rooms. The Wolves' 20 points marked the lowest for a WCU opponent since Head Coach Damien Blair's team held Gannon to just 17 points in the opening half of West Chester's 52-44 victory over the Golden Knights on November 18.
Although Cheyney's offense managed to put up 45 points on 58% shooting in the second half, the deficit was just too great for the Wolves to overcome. Up 93-49 midway through the frame, a layup by
Terrence Moore (Philadelphia, Pa. / Audriend) gave the home team its biggest lead of the game (95-49) with just under seven minutes to play. The Golden Rams kept the pressure on over the final seven minutes and two free throws by Moore capped the big 107-65 win for the Golden Rams on Saturday evening.
WCU shot 51% (36-of-70) from the floor and 11-of-27 (41%) from deep in the victory, while West Chester logged a season-high 17 steals and forced Cheyney into 20 turnovers – the most by a Golden Rams opponent this year.
Long led all players with 27 points (11-of-19) on the night and the senior now sits just nine points away from reaching the 1000 career-point plateau with three regular season games remaining. Junior
Jackson Hyland (Avondale, Pa. / Kennett) put up 17 points in the win, while fellow junior
Frank Rokins (Plainfield, N.J. / St. Mary's) notched his team-leading sixth double-double with 10 points (4-of-4) and 10 rebounds against the Wolves. Off the bench,
Evan-Eric Longino (Furlong, Pa. / Germantown Academy) and Smith both tallied 12 points and Moore finished the game with 11 points and five rebounds in 14 minutes played.
Dikemba Amugo's 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting represented the only double-digit finish for a Cheyney (2-19, 2-15 PSAC) player in the loss.
