No. 23 West Chester Falls 111-101 at East Stroudsburg

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EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. - The No. 23 West Chester University men's basketball team headed into Saturday's game at East Stroudsburg sitting atop the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division standings and looking to gain some breathing room in a division where the top four teams were separated by a single game or less.

Saturday's contest featured two of the top-scoring offensive units in the entire country. The host Warriors came into tonight's game leading the PSAC and ranking fourth throughout the NCAA (DII) with 93.7 points/game, while the visiting Golden Rams embarked on the Koehler Fieldhouse touting the No. 3 offense in the league (86.2 points/game) and averaging 104.6 points per outing in their last five contests.

Although the West Chester was able to hit the 100-point mark for the third-straight time on Saturday (5th time in last six) and end the first half with a lead, WCU has unable to combat East Stroudsburg's hot shooting (62%) from the field and fell to the Warriors 111-101 on the road.

Saturday's defeat – the first for West Chester in the last five games - drops the Golden Rams to 20-5 on the year (16-5 PSAC) and pushes WCU from the top spot in the PSAC Eastern Division down to No. 3 behind Shippensburg (16-4) and East Stroudsburg (16-4) with one regular season game remaining.

The Golden Rams got the scoring started with two free throws by junior Frank Rokins (Plainfield, N.J. / St. Mary's) to begin the game and eventually built a double-digit advantage (16-6) following a layup by junior Miko Jenkins (Harrisburg, Pa. / Steel) with just over 17 minutes to remaining in the opening frame. The visitors were able to maintain a lead for the next 10-plus minutes until a 14-2 run by the Warriors gave ESU its first lead of the game (33-32) with 6:45 to play. Trailing 43-40, the Golden Rams closed out the half on a 6-0 spurt – capped by a last-second tip-in by sophomore Dominic Guerrera (Downingtown, Pa. / Downingtown West) – to secure the 46-40 advantage through the first 20 minutes of action.

With WCU on top, the host Warriors started the second half with a 13-4 run to retake the lead (53-50) with 18:10 left in regulation. Fueled by some deadeye shooting from deep, East Stroudsburg slowly began to put the game out of reach over the next handful minutes and eventually the Warriors were able to construct a 15-point advantage (97-82) with just over three minutes remaining on the clock.  A layup from Hyland brought the visitors within nine (102-93) with 1:16 to go, but that would be as close as the Golden Rams would get for the remainder of the game, as ESU closed out the frame by connecting on seven shots from the charity stripe to seal the 111-101 victory on Saturday night.

West Chester converted 34-of-68 (50%) of its shots from the floor and 24% (6-of-25) of its attempts from beyond the arc in the loss. The Golden Rams held the slim 50-48 advantage over the Warriors in points in the paint, but ESU finished the game ahead in both bench scoring (43-24) and points off turnovers (31-13).

Junior Jackson Hyland's (Avondale, Pa. / Kennett) season-high 30 points led all scorers on Saturday and marked the second time this season that the junior has reached the 30-point plateau in a game. Senior Tyrell Long (Philadelphia, Pa. / Bishop McDevitt) added 23 points (6-of-9) and eight rebounds against East Stroudsburg, while Rokins logged his team-leading seventh double-double (16 points/11 rebounds) in 34 minutes played. Off the bench, freshman Jawan Collins (Yeadon, Pa. / Academy Park) chipped in 15 points to fall just one point shy of tying his career high and graduate student Steve Smith (Ambler, Pa. / La Salle) tacked on five points in the losing effort.

ESU's Steve Harris led the Warriors with 20 points against West Chester and Jakwan Jones put up 11 points and a career-high 13 assists in Saturday's victory.