SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.V.- The West Chester women's basketball team took to the road on Monday evening to face Shepherd in the first of two games against the Rams on the week. West Chester led throughout much of the first quarter, holding an 11-10 lead with 2:04 to play in the opening frame before Shepherd went on a run to carry a nine-point lead into the halftime break en route to a 82-56 victory over the visiting Golden Rams.
In the first quarter,
Leah Johnson (Columbus, N.J./Notre Dame) opened the scoring by knocking down an early technical free throw after an administrative technical was assessed to Shepherd to give the Golden Rams a 1-0 lead before the opening tip. This early incident seemed to startle the Rams, as West Chester jumped out to an early 9-6 lead with 5:34 to play in the first period but Shepherd found its footing and closed the frame on a 10-3 run to take a 16-12 lead into the second quarter.
In the second, Shepherd extended its lead to as many as nine points with 5:43 to play before West Chester began battling back, cutting the deficit to just four points (27-23) after a made three by
Alexa Abbonizio (Springfield, Pa./Springfield). Shepherd closed out the half on a 12-7 run to take a 39-30 lead into the halftime break.
Johnson ended the first half with a team-high eight points on 3-for-8 shooting while the PSACs leading scorer, Abby Beeman ended the half with 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting and 3-for-5 shooting from three-point range to help the Rams carry a nine-point lead into the halftime break.
In the early portion of the third quarter, West Chester scored the first points of the half on a layup from
Nancy Ruf (Fair Lawn, N.J./Fair Lawn) before Shepherd went on a 7-0 run to take its largest lead of the game at 48-32 with 5:22 to play in the third. As the third quarter continued, Shepherd continued to extend its lead, eventually taking a 60-38 lead into the halftime break
In the fourth, Shepherd's Abby Beeman wasted little time in getting her 1000
th career point taken care of, draining her first three-pointer of the second half, which also gave Shepherd a 25-point (63-38) lead in the early stages of the fourth quarter. Shepherd continued to extend its lead from this point, leading by as many as 34 points (79-45) with 4:08 to play. West Chester held Shepherd to just three over the final 4:08 and scored 11 points of its own to make the score 82-56 as time expired.
Rachel Conran (Springfield, Pa./Springfield) ended the game as the Golden Rams leading scorer with a nine-point second half effort on a perfect 3-of-3 shooting from deep the PSAC East Player of the Week, Johnson was kept off the scoreboard in the second half going 0-for-5 from the field in the second 20 minutes of action
As a team, West Chester shot 30.2 % from the field and 35.0 % from deep while shooting 68.8 % from the line in the setback. Despite the loss, West Chester did manage to end the game with a plus-four (41-37) advantage in rebounding thanks in large part to an impressive 14-4 advantage on the offensive glass.
For Shepherd, Beeman ended with a game-high 26 points and eight assists while Marley McLaughlin finished with 23 of her own in the victory.
As a team, Shepherd shot well from the field, shooting 48.3 % from the field an 39.1 % from three-point territory while also shooting 93.8 % (15-of-16) from the stripe in the victory.
West Chester will be back in action on Wednesday evening vs the same Shepherd squad inside Hollinger Field House beginning at 5:30 p.m.
