KUTZTOWN, Pa.- The West Chester women's basketball team (3-8, 1-4 PSAC) returns to action on Wednesday evening at Kutztown (10-3, 3-1 PSAC) in its PSAC East opener. West Chester enters play looking to halt a five-game losing streak, and history would suggest that this game might be coming at the right time for the Purple and Gold as West Chester is 5-1 under head coach
Kiera Wooden in the first PSAC game of the New Year.
Dating back to the 1980 season, West Chester is 46-34 against the Golden Bears; however, recent history has shown the two sides to be very evenly matched as they are 5-5 against one another over the last 10 meetings. While the games have been relatively even over the last 10 meetings, Kutztown, led by head coach Janet Malouf, who enters play one win shy of her 400
th career victory, did manage to sweep the season series during the 2019-20 campaign.
West Chester enters play following a loss in its last contest before the New Year when the Golden Rams paid a visit to Division I George Washington. While the game remained close throughout much of the early going, a poor third-quarter shooting effort and the corresponding run by GW (outscored 15-2 in the third) gave the Colonials much-needed separation as they rolled to a 64-31 victory over the visiting Golden Rams.
Leah Johnson led the Golden Rams in scoring with nine points and three assists, while
Abby Penjuke came away with a team-high 11 rebounds. Despite the setback, the Golden Rams did well defensively, allowing only one Colonial to eclipse the 10-point plateau while also forcing their hosts to shoot just 10.5 % from three-point range, which was the second-lowest this season (held Jefferson to just 6.3 % shooting from beyond the arc in a win earlier this year).
Limiting its opponent's three-point shooting has been a skill for the Purple and Gold this season, as the team remains second in the PSAC in opponent three-point shooting, with opponents shooting an average of just 23.9 % from beyond the arc. On the other end of the floor, West Chester has shown itself to be a dangerous team from deep when it gets hot, shooting 31.9 % on the year, which is third-best in the league. This 31.9 % three-point shooting percentage has played a leading role in West Chester's scoring this season as the Golden Rams have had two or more players in double figures in 10 of 11 games this season, including all 10 games vs Division II competition.
Leah Johnson (Columbus, N.J./Notre Dame), who enters play as the leading scorer between the two sides this year, averaging 15.3 points per game, has been a consistent presence for West Chester throughout the season, leading the team in scoring in eight of its 11 games, scoring in double figures in nine of 11 games, and adding a team-best three double-doubles along the way. In addition to the offensive threat that Johnson provides,
Alexa Abbonizio (Springfield, Pa./Springfield) and
Kyra Jefferson (Bethlehem, Pa./Freedom) have also shown themselves to be offensive weapons for West Chester as they have each led the team in scoring twice this season while Abbonizio has scored 10 or more points six times while Jefferson has accomplished this twice. Abbonizio and Jefferson currently rank second and third on the team, scoring 9.6 and 7.5 points per game, respectively, through the first 11 games of the year.
For Kutztown, the Golden Bears enter play on Wednesday evening with a record of 10-3 overall and a mark of 3-1 in league play, riding a four-game winning streak after a narrow victory over Edinboro back on December 19
th. Wednesday night's game will the Golden Bears first game since that 46-42 triumph over the Fighting Scots, following a postponement of their game scheduled for January 2
nd on the road at Cal.
In the victory over Edinboro to conclude the 2021 half of the schedule, Rylee Derr and Casey Remolde led the way in scoring for the Golden Bears, scoring 11 points each while also tying for the team-lead in rebounding with nine rebounds each. Kutztown trailed early in this contest, being outscored 14-11 in the first quarter, but the Golden Bears outscored the Fighting Scots 35-28 over the final three quarters (including 6-4 in the second) to escape with a 46-42 victory and improve to 10-3 on the year.
For the year, Derr is the Golden Bears leading scorer, entering play averaging 14.9 points per game, which ranks her 12
th in the PSAC entering Divisional play. Teammate Casey Remolde has shown herself to be a factor on both sides of the court this season, ranking second on the team in scoring, averaging 12.8 points per game while also ranking second in the PSAC and within the top-10 in the NCAA in blocks, averaging 2.5 blocks per game, following a three-block effort in the win over Edinboro. As a unit, Kutztown enters play averaging just 63.9 points per game; however, the Golden Bears have done well defensively, limiting opponents to an average of just 57.5 points per game thanks in large part to a 6.7 block per game average, which is the best in all of Division II women's basketball.
Following this contest on Wednesday night, West Chester will conclude its season-long six-game road trip with a visit to Division II assist leader Abby Beeman and Shepherd on Saturday afternoon beginning at 1 p.m. before returning home to host rival Shippensburg on Monday, January 10
th.
