LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, Pa.- The West Chester women's basketball team (1-1) will look to get back on track on Wednesday evening at Lincoln after splitting its first two games of the season at the Carol Eckman Classic over the weekend. The opening tip in this non-league battle is set for 6 p.m. inside Manuel Rivero Gymnasium.
Fans attending the contest are advised that they must show proof of full vaccination or provide proof of a negative COVID test within the last 72 hours in order to gain admission to the facility.
Fans unable to make the trip to Lincoln this evening can follow the game via live stats and video provided by Lincoln or can listen to the game on the radio on WCHE1520 (wche1520.com).
West Chester enters play on Wednesday evening with a record of 5-2 all-time against Lincoln, having played to a record of 1-2 over the course of its last three meetings against the Lions. The last time West Chester visited Lincoln during the 2018-19 season, the Golden Rams used a big second quarter to roll past the Lions and earn an 84-80 road victory. West Chester and Lincoln did square off during the 2019-20 season, with that contest occurring inside Hollinger Field House, and despite holding a nine-point lead at the halftime break, West Chester fell to Lincoln by a final of 75-66.
West Chester kicked off its season with a victory on Saturday night over Mountain East foe Wheeling, prevailing by a final of 73-61, led by four players in double figures, including a game-high 22 from sophomore
Leah Johnson (Columbus, N.J./Notre Dame). In this contest, Johnson was joined in double figures by freshman
Alexa Abbonizio (Springfield, Pa./Springfield), Bink Redman (York, Pa./William Penn), and
Justyn Roberts (Harrisburg, Pa./C.D. East), who ended the game with 16, 11, and 10 points, respectively. Johnson and Redman also tied for the team lead in assists in this contest, each registering six, while newcomer
Abby Penjuke (Collegeville, Pa./Methacton) led the team in rebounding with seven in the opening night victory. As a team, West Chester shot 47.4 % from the field and 37.5 % from beyond the arc to improve to 1-0 on the season. This victory allowed West Chester to extend its streak to five years in a row in which the Purple and Gold have recorded at least one win during the opening weekend of play.
On Sunday afternoon, West Chester looked to sweep its games at the Eckman for the first time since the beginning of the 2017-18 season against No. 14 ranked Glenville State. In this contest, Glenville State raced out to an early 8-0 lead and never looked back en route to a 95-75 victory over West Chester to drop the home-standing Golden Rams to 1-1 on the year. Despite the setback, West Chester had four players in double figures once again, led by another game-high performance from Johnson, who led all scorers with 21 points in the setback. Roberts and Redman also finished the game in double figures for their second double-digit scoring effort of the year, ending their days with 14 points and 11 points, respectively. Local product
Morgan Warley (West Chester, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) was the final Golden Ram to eclipse the 10-point plateau, registering the first double-digit scoring effort of her young career with 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field in the setback. Johnson led the way in rebounding in this contest with six while also leading the team in steals once again with three more steals after leading the team with five on opening night.
With the first two games of the year in the books, Johnson currently ranks fourth in the league in points per game, averaging 21.5 points per contest while also ranking sixth in the league in assists per game and first in the league in steals. While it is still early in the season, the Golden Rams have already emerged as one of the stronger offensive units in the PSAC, ranking fifth in the league in points per game (74.0) and fourth in field goal percentage (45.2 %). West Chester also ranks within the top five in the PSAC in blocks (5.0/G-third), assists (14.50/G-fourth ), and steals (10.0/G-third) through the first two games of the 2021-22 campaign.
For its part, Lincoln enters play with an identical 1-1 record, having won its first game of the season over Millersville by a 71-56 final before falling to Kutztown by a final of 77-74. Lincoln has been well balanced throughout the early part of the season, with several players hovering around the 10.0 points per game mark early in the year. Bryanna Brown, who poured in 21 points in the Lions setback vs Kutztown on Saturday evening, currently leads the team in scoring, averaging 14.0 points per game, while Shantel Cheeks, Ciani Montgomery (who posted a team-high 13 points in the opening night victory over Millersville) all rank in a tie for second on the team in scoring with 9.5 points each. Brown's impressive opening weekend, which saw her average 6.5 rebounds per game in addition to her 14.0 point per game scoring average, earned her CIAA/PSAC All-Tournament team honors. West Chester will need to be mindful of the fact that Brown scored 18 of her 28 points on the weekend from the charity stripe, shooting a blistering 94.7 % (18-of-19) from the line over her first two games.
As a team, Lincoln has shot 37.7 % from the field and 30.3 % from three-point range through the season's first two games. Like West Chester, who has been forcing opponents into an average of 22.0 turnovers per game, Lincoln also enters play with a positive turnover differential, forcing its guests into an average of 25.0 turnovers per contest while committing just an average of just 17.0 per game of its own. During the opening weekend, Lincoln also did a good job of getting extra possessions for itself as the Lions crashed the offensive glass hard to a tune of 31 offensive rebounds on the weekend while limiting its opponents to just 20 on the weekend. These 31 rebounds turned into 24 second-chance points for the Lions over the course of their two games on opening weekend (10 vs. Millersville, 14 vs. Kutztown).
Following this contest, West Chester will shift its attention to its next non-league opponent in Chestnut Hill, who will visit Hollinger Field House on Sunday afternoon, beginning at 1 p.m. This game against Chestnut Hill will be the Golden Rams final game before Thanksgiving, as the team will not return to action again until the following Monday (November 29
th) on the road at Jefferson.
