WEST CHESTER, Pa.- Following a convincing win over Georgian Court to start the week, the West Chester men's basketball team (4-1) is ready to shift its attention to PSAC play, beginning with the first crossover weekend of the year as Mercyhurst (1-0) and Gannon (0-4) will visit Hollinger on Friday and Saturday evenings with both games set to begin at 5:30 p.m.
Fan Information
Fan's are reminded of the updated ticket prices for the 2022-23 season, with single-game century club tickets being $20, single-game adult tickets being $10, children/senior tickets being $5, and WCU students being admitted free of charge with current, valid ID.
Series Information
Tonight's matchup will be the 11th all-time between the Golden Rams and Lakers with the first meeting coming as recently as the 2009 season with a 63-58 win for the Golden Rams. West Chester has won each of its last two games vs its Western Division foe, including an 83-80 OT win in Hollinger in December 2019, which was the Golden Rams last OT game prior to the win at Lincoln in the season opener earlier this year.
West Chester leads the all-time series vs Gannon by a 7-5 margin having won each of the last three while also winning each of the last four home matchups vs the Golden Knights. West Chester has not hosted Gannon in Hollinger since the 2016-17 season, winning each of the last two matchups in the Hammermill Center, including a 72-67 win on the road during the 2019-20 season. In that matchup, West Chester found itself in a tight game throughout the afternoon but WCU was able to hold a slim three-point (34-31) lead at the half and the Golden Rams never relinquished this lead en route to the five-point road victory. Robbie Heath led four players in double figures with 20 points while current junior
Kyle McGee chipped in 11 of his own in what had been his second consecutive double-digit scoring effort after adding 13 vs Goldey-Beacom days prior.
Flock Talk
West Chester enters tonight's game following an impressive win over Georgian Court on Monday night. West Chester never trailed and led by as many as 38 points late in the fourth quarter as the Golden Rams cruised to the non-league victory.
Kyle McGee and
Elijah Allen tied for the team lead in scoring with 16 points each as two of four Golden Rams in double figures while
Moro Osumanu and
Robert Smith added 14 each in the bounce-back victory.
West Chester was picked to finish third in the PSAC East in 2022-23, trailing only East Stroudsburg and Shippensburg who claimed seven and two first-place votes, respectively. For its part, Mercyhurst was picked to finish second in the PSAC West, trailing only National Semifinalist IUP for the top spot in the Western Division poll.
West Chester is 33-17 (66.0 % win %) in crossover games dating back to the 2011-12 season when those games first started counting toward conference record. Despite this impressive winning percentage, West Chester did struggle slightly in these matchups last year, going just 2-3, including 0-2 at home in the matchups.
Kyle McGee is the only Golden Ram to have scored in double figures in every game so far this season. McGee has scored 10 or more points on four occasions and also added in a 20+ point effort vs Virginia State, finishing with 25, which set a new career-high for the junior guard. These efforts have allowed McGee to rank first on the team in scoring, averaging 17.8 points per game while also leading the team in assists (3.8/g) and steals (2.0/g).
As a team, West Chester ranks 33
rd in Division II in scoring average, averaging 84.2 points per game, which is fourth best in the PSAC while the Golden Rams' 40.0 % three-point shooting percentage is second best in the PSAC and 32
nd best in all of Division II men's basketball entering play this weekend. McGee and Allen have played majors role in the hot start to the year from beyond the arc, shooting 52.0 % from three and 44.1 %, which rank third and sixth in the PSAC, entering the opening weekend of play.
Scouting Mercyhurst
When Mercyhurst returns to action on Friday night, it will be the Lakers first game since November 16th when they defeated Daemen on a buzzer-beating three pointer to open the year 1-0. Mercyhurst, who averaged just under 80 points per game a year ago, saw its offense stifled in its lone game so far this season, finishing with just 62 points in an ugly road win at Daemen. Michael Bradley played the hero for Mercyhurst in the season opener, hitting the clutch three late to lift the Lakers to the season-opening win and finish with a game-high 21 points.
With just one game played so far this season, Mercyhurst is a difficult team to read entering play on Friday night as the stats do not seem to show the clearest picture. In the lone game so far this season, Michael Bradley led the way with 21 points as one of three players in double figures while also finishing with eight rebounds and four assists to help bolster the Lakers in the non-league victory. In that win, Mercyhurst shot just 37.5 % from the field and a poor 26.9 % from deep while also shooting 70.0 % from the line. Mercyhurst also lost the rebounding battle by a 40-35 margin but the Lakers did force 15 turnovers while committing just nine of their own, which provided crucial in allowing them to comeback and earn a one-point victory.
Scouting Gannon
Gannon enters the weekend still searching for its first win of the season after falling to 0-4 with a two-point (61-59) loss to Le Moyne on November 26
th in the final game of the 36
th Annual Gary Miller Classic. In this contest, Gannon trailed for much of the night but rallied behind a pair of freshman to take a slim 59-55 lead with 1:39 to play before Le Moyne closed the game out on a 6-0 run to steal a 61-59 victor. Josh Omojafo was the lone Golden Knight in double figures on Saturday, finishing with 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting. As a team, Gannon shot 44.8 % from the field but shot just over 21 % from beyond the arc and a low 42.9 % from the line in the setback.
While Gannon remains winless on the year, the Golden Knights have been getting closer to their first victory of the season, falling to Lake Erie by eight points and Le Moyne by just two in each of their last two games after dropping the first two games of the season by double digits.
Gannon has scored above 70 points just once so far this season with that effort coming in a 73-point performance vs Lake Erie as the team is averaging just 62.8 points per game thus far. Three-point shooting has been something of an Achilles heel for the Golden Knights so far this year, shooting just 24.1 % from beyond the arc while their 17 turnovers per game (-4.5 TO Margin) have also proved difficult to overcome in the first month of the season.
Up Next
After play concludes on Saturday night against Gannon, West Chester will remain home for the final home game of its six-game homestand next Thursday evening vs Holy Family beginning at 7:30 p.m. as that contest will also be the second game of a non-league doubleheader in Hollinger.
