West Chester's Season Ends in NCAA Atlantic Regional Semifinals

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ETTRICK, Va. - Despite holding a five-point lead at halftime, the No. 6-seeded West Chester University men's basketball team's postseason run ended on Sunday evening, as the Golden Rams fell to second seed East Stroudsburg University 90-76 in the NCAA Atlantic Regional Semifinal held on the campus of Virginia State University in Ettrick, Virginia.

Sunday's tournament matchup pitted two very familiar foes against each other, with tonight's contest marking the third time this season that these Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) foes have squared off against each other this season. Heading into Sunday's outing, West Chester and East Stroudsburg split the season series 1-1, with each team claiming victory inside their home gyms in very different fashions. The Golden Rams downed the Warriors 76-74 on January 17 at the Hollinger Field House in a stout defensive battle, before East Stroudsburg claimed its revenge 111-101 in an offensive shootout inside the Koehler Fieldhouse. With two nearly polar opposite outcomes in their first two meetings this season, entering Sunday's neutral site game, it was anybody's guess how this semifinal showdown would shake out.

Carrying over his strong play from yesterday's historic victory over Wheeling Jesuit, sophomore Tim Toro (Scranton, Pa. / Abington Heights) came out on Sunday and scored 10 of West Chester's first 19 points to put the Golden Rams on top 19-15 with 12:24 to play in the opening frame. West Chester was able to maintain that advantage for the next handful of minutes and eventually stretched the cushion to eight (27-19) at the 8:31 mark following a jumper by junior Matt Penecale (Jenkintown, Pa. / Abington). The Warriors managed to trim the deficit down to two points on several occasions down the stretch, but ESU just could not regain the lead back. After a triple by East Stroudsburg's Ryan Krawczeniuk brought the score to 43-41, Penecale came through again – this time with a three-pointer – to close out the first half with WCU leading, 46-41.

The Warriors woke up in the second half and scored the first eight points of the frame to force Head Coach Damien Blair to call a timeout just 50 seconds into the stanza and his team trailing, 49-46. Down 54-48, the Golden Rams answered back with a 5-0 spurt to hack the ESU lead to just one (54-53) with 13:57 to play. As the second half creeped along, the Warriors slowly began to wear out the Golden Rams with their press – a press that has helped ESU lead the entire country in total steals (345) and steals per game (11.9). With the pressure amped up, the Warriors were able to force West Chester into some mistakes which lead East Stroudsburg going up by double-digits (75-65) with 7:13 remaining. A triple by freshman Jawan Collins (Yeadon, Pa. / Academy Park) brought the Golden Rams within eight (81-73) with 3:18 to play, but a gassed WCU squad could not trim the deficit any more, as the Warriors began to pull away down the stretch and eventually took the 90-76 victory inside the VSU Multipurpose Center.

The Golden Rams shot 49% (18-of-37) from the floor in the first half, but only managed to convert on 8-of-25 of its shots from floor in the second half to finish the game with a 41.9% shooting clip. West Chester connected on just four (4-of-19) triples against the Warriors on Sunday, marking the second lowest number of three-point field goals made by the Golden Rams this season. Although ESU came into the game as the top turnover-causing team in the country, West Chester equaled the Warriors in both steals (9-9) and turnovers (19) in Sunday night's outing.

Individually, junior Frank Rokins (Plainfield, N.J. / St. Mary's) led the Golden Rams with 16 points in 21 minutes, while fellow junior Jackson Hyland (Avondale, Pa. / Kennett) logged his first double-double of the season after putting up 14 points and grabbing a career-high 15 boards on the night. Hyland's 14 points on Sunday marked the 28th time this season that the guard has reached double figures (team best) and helped the Avondale native finish the season with 922 career points through 88 total contests.  Penecale ended the game with 13 points and a team-high five assists – giving the guard 397 total helpers in his career and sole possession of the No. 4 spot on WCU's all-time assists leaderboard. In his final game wearing the purple and gold, senior Tyrell Long (Philadelphia, Pa. / Bishop McDevitt) tallied nine points against the Warriors to give the four-year senior 1,096 (No. 23 in West Chester history) career points for the Golden Rams.

Sunday's defeat brings West Chester's final record in 2017-18 to 22-7, giving the Golden Rams their fourth 20-plus win season during Head Coach Damien Blair's 10 seasons at the helm. Despite the loss, WCU had a lot to celebrate this season, as the Golden Rams won their first-ever NCAA Tournament game last night and the squad managed to tie a program record with 12-straight wins to start the year. West Chester was ranked as high as No.17 in the country throughout the season and the Golden Rams featured four individuals to earn accolades from the PSAC, including a All-PSAC First Team selection for Long.
 
 Reigning PSAC Tournament Most Valuable Player Steve Harris paced the Warriors with 15 and seven boards in Sunday's victory.

Note: East Stroudsburg and West Chester are the only NCAA Division II programs this season to meet three times throughout the year with the third meeting coming in the NCAA Round of 32 or later. These two institutions also met in the NCAA Tournament for men's soccer (Round of 32) and women's soccer (Sweet 16), with the Golden Rams coming out victorious in both affairs. 

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Postgame Interview