WEST CHESTER, Pa.- After giving No. 11 IUP all it could handle just over a week ago, the West Chester women's basketball team (5-5, 2-2) is eager to return to the court on Friday afternoon vs Seton Hill (9-4, 2-2) as the Golden Rams look to halt a two-game losing streak.
Series Information
West Chester and Seton Hill meet for the sixth time in their respective histories this afternoon as WCU looks to halt a three-game losing streak against the Griffins, the longest of either team during the all-time series.
Leah Johnson led the team in scoring with 17 points, and
Kyra Jefferson added 10 of her own, but it was not enough to overcome a 32.3 % field-goal shooting effort and an 0-12 performance from beyond the arc when the two teams met a year ago. Last year's meeting came at the end of another 10-day layoff for the Golden Rams, and the team showed some signs of rust early in the contest, struggling to get going from the field in the setback. West Chester found itself in an early hole, trailing 20-12 at the end of one and 35-23 at the half in the 73-53 loss. West Chester trailed by as many as 24 by the end of regulation before a late-game run by the Golden Rams cut into the deficit, but it was not enough to avoid the team's third consecutive loss to the Griffins.
Flock Talk
Similar to when West Chester and IUP met a year ago, West Chester led for much of the first half, leading by as many as nine points with under a minute to play in the second quarter following a 7-0 run, but it was a 14-4 early in the second half by IUP combined with a perfect 8-for-8 effort at the line in the final 71 seconds of play, which led the Crimson Hawks past West Chester on Monday night.
Anna McTamney led the way with a game-high 23 points while
Emily McAteer logged her team and league-best sixth double-double of the year with 12 points and 13 rebounds, but it was not enough to pull a third upset over a ranked team before Christmas.
West Chester is primed for a bounce-back performance on Friday evening as two-games matches the longest losing streak of the year to date for the Golden Rams, while head coach
Kiera Wooden is also 5-2 in the first PSAC game back from the Holiday Break in her tenure at the helm of the Golden Rams.
Emily McAteer (Thornton, Pa./Garnet Valley) has made an immediate impact in the starting lineup for West Chester, ranking first on the team in both scoring and rebounding, averaging a double-double with 17.2 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. To this end, McAteer has logged six double-doubles already this season, which ranks first in the entirety of the PSAC, with Rajah Fink (CAL) and Kennedy Middleton (SRU) trailing behind with five each. McAteer also ranks in a tie for second in the league in 20+-point outings with five on the season, including three of the last four games entering the Holiday Break.
McAteer is, of course, just one of a number of dangerous offensive weapons, which West Chester has at its disposal, as
Leah Johnson (Columbus, N.J./Notre Dame), who ranks in the top five in the nation in assists per game,
Anna McTamney (Plymouth Meeting, Pa./Plymouth Whitemarsh), and Michelle Kozicki (Wilmington, Del./Padua) have all made significant offensive contributions to the midway point of the 2022-23 season. Johnson and McTamney are two of just six players in the PSAC to record a 30+-point performance so far this year, making West Chester the only team to have two players on that list. For Johnson, this impressive performance game at West Virginia State on opening weekend when she finished with 38 points, while McTamney logged 30 points in a win over #22 Jefferson in the Golden Rams home opener.
As a team, West Chester comes out of the break boasting the third-best offense in the PAC, thanks in large part to a 43.1 % field-goal percentage, which ranks fourth best in the league, along with a +4.8 advantage on the glass, which is fifth-best in the PSAC. The Golden Rams have also taken care of the ball as well as any team in the league to this point in the year, ranking second in assist/turnover ratio at 0.94, which trails only Gannon, whom West Chester defeated at home earlier this season in the first crossover weekend of the year.
Scouting Seton Hill
For Seton Hill, the Griffins enter play coming off a loss in their last game, falling to Kutztown last Monday afternoon by a 67-55 final. Kutztown surged ahead early and held a seven-point lead at the half before stretching the advantage to 17 heading into the fourth. Seton Hill attempted to mount a late-game comeback and did outscore its guests by five in the final frame, but it was not enough to avoid the 12-point loss heading into the Holiday Break. Seton Hill shot 39.6 % from the field in this game and 30.4 % from three, both of which are close to its season averages, but an uncharacteristic 66.7 % free-throw shooting effort and a poor rebounding performance spelled doom for the home-standing Griffins. Seton Hill entered last weekend as one of the better rebounding teams in the PSAC, winning the rebounding battle by almost six rebounds per game on average before losing the rebounding battle on Monday night by a 34-28 margin, over 11 rebounds shy of its average of 39.6 rebounds per contest.
Allie Seto led the team in scoring on Monday night with 20 points while also leading in rebounds and steals with eight and four, both of which fall in n line with how things have gone for Seton Hill throughout the season. Entering play on Friday night, Seto remains the lone Griffin averaging in double figures for scoring, averaging 12.3 points per game, while also averaging 6.3 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game, are both the best on the team. Freshman guard Helene Cowan has stepped into an essential role for head coach Mark Katarski's Griffins this season, ranking second on the team in scoring, averaging 8.6 points per game while leading the team in assists, averaging 2.8 helpers per game.
Up Next
West Chester will be off until the New Year, with its next game not coming until January 4
th vs Mansfield in its PSAC East opener beginning at 5:30 p.m.
