WEST CHESTER, Pa.- After nearly a week long layoff, including Thanksgiving, the West Chester women's basketball team (1-2) returns to the court on Saturday afternoon in search of its second win of the season in its home opener vs Jefferson (5-0) on Saturday afternoon beginning at 1 p.m.
Series Information
This will be the 38
th meeting all-time between Jefferson and West Chester with the Rams holding a slim 21-17 lead over WCU in the all-time series. Despite the deficit in the all-time series, West Chester did pick up an impressive road win over Jefferson a year ago, defeating the Rams in Philadelphia by a final of 75-61.
When West Chester and Jefferson locked horns a season ago, it was a stellar 15-point effort from
Alexa Abbonizio along with a 14-point effort from
Leah Johnson, which led the Golden Rams to the victory. West Chester and Jefferson traded makes through the early going before a late first-quarter run gave the Golden Rams a 14-point (24-10) lead heading into the second quarter. In the second, West Chester continued to stretch its lead, eventually leading by as many as 24 points with less than two minutes until the halftime break. Jefferson attempted to mount a comeback in the second half, eventually pulling back to within 14 late in the fourth quarter but this was as close as the host Rams would get in the 75-61 loss. Three-point and free-throw shooting were both major storylines in the victory as West Chester outshot its hosts by a wide margin both categories, ending the game with a 34.8 % three-point shooting percentage compared to a 6.3 % Jefferson performance and a 75.0 % effort at the line vs a 54.5 % performance from Jefferson.
West Chester has played well in home openers in recent years, winning three of its last four dating back to the 2017-18 season with the only loss in that stretch coming against Urbana at the outset of the 2019 season.
Fan Information
Fan's are reminded of the updated ticket prices for the 2022-23 season with single-game century club tickets being $20 with single-game adult tickets being $10 and children/senior tickets being $5 with WCU students being admitted free of charge with current, valid ID.
Flock Talk
In need of a victory on Sunday afternoon at Chestnut Hill to halt a four-game Sunday losing streak, dating back to the 2021-22 season and earn its first victory of the year to avoid its first 0-3 start since 2006, West Chester responded in a big way, holding on for a 57-53 win over Chestnut Hill.
Michelle Kozicki was one of three Golden Rams in double figures and one of two to register a double-double, finishing with a career-high 18 points and 10 rebounds while teammate
Emily McAteer came away with 12 points and 10 rebounds of her own. Fellow newcomer,
Anna McTamney was the third and final Golden Ram in double figures, finishing with 12 points to help make up for an uncharacteristically rough shooting day from the normally consistent
Leah Johnson, wo scored just six points on 2-of-12 shooting from the field.
McAteer and McTamney's double double's marked just the second time since the 2018-19 season that West Chester had two players record a double-double with the lone other occurrence being in the PSAC Tournament last year at Shepherd when Johnson and Roberts both registered double-doubles in the season-ending setback. Prior to that, the last time two Golden Rams had registered a double-double in the same game was during the 2017-18 season, when Porscha Speller and Mia Hopkins both did so against Seton Hill, as the second of two times that season in which the Golden Rams accomplished the feat.
Reading on the Rams
Jefferson enters play on Saturday afternoon following a win of its own, defeating a PSAC East foe in East Stroudsburg to improve to 5-0 to open the year. Cassie Murphy led the way with 29 points on 11-of-16 shooting from the field while Hailey Meinel added 17 of her own to help lead the Rams past the Warriors. The contest was close throughout as Jefferson did not hold a commanding lead until late in the fourth quarter, but did manage to slowly build its lead throughout the contest (up 2 after the first, up three at the half, up four entering the fourth) before outscoring its hosts 31-25 in the fourth to earn the victory. Despite losing the rebounding battle by a -17 margin and committing 17 turnovers, East Stroudsburg hung around in the game throughout thanks to a strong 11-of-15 effort from three-point range with 8 of those 11 makes coming from Ryan Weise as she finished with 30 points to lead all scorers in the loss.
Murphy and Meinel are tied as the team's scoring leaders entering play on Saturday afternoon, each averaging 16.0 points per game while Meinel also ranks second on the team in assists, averaging 2.8 per contest and third in steals averaging 2.0 per game. For her part, Murphy is third on the team in rebounding, averaging 6.2 rebounds per game. Sam Yencha, who had a relatively quiet night at East Stroudsburg on Tuesday, finishing with just four points and seven rebounds, has been a force for the Rams this season, averaging a double-double (11.2 PPG & 10.0 R/g).
Limiting opponents three-point shooting has been a major key for Jefferson once again this season as prior to the ESU game opponents were shooting below 30 % from outside on the year. The ESU game raised this average to 33.3 % following the 11-of-15 shooting effort put forth by the Warriors. East Stroudsburg will need to continue to limit the damage its opponents can do from outside the arc as the Rams are not a particularly strong three-point shooting team, shooting just 30.8 % on the year, in stark contrast to a 43.9 % field goal percentage. For any shortcomings they may have shooting the ball, the Rams make up for it by consistently getting extra possessions, entering play on Saturday with a +8.8 lead in rebounding margin and +4.6 advantage in the turnover battle.
Up Next
West Chester returns to action on Friday evening vs Mercyhurst beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the first of two PSAC crossover games at home next weekend with Gannon set to visit Hollinger on Saturday night at 5:30 as well.
