WEST CHESTER, Pa.-Playing in its non-league finale to wrap up a season-long six game homestand, the West Chester men's basketball team (6-2) never trailed en route to an 80-60 victory over Holy Family (5-4) on Thursday night.
Robert Smith (Philadelphia, Pa./Bishop McDevitt) nearly matched his seaso-high and led the team in scoring with 23 points on 8-of-17 shooting, including 5-for-10 from deep while
Kyle McGee (Jersey City, N.J./St. Mary's of the Assumption) and
Eli Barrett (Harrisburg, Pa./Harrisburg) also finished in double figures with 18 and 16, respectively. Barrett matched his season-high for scoring while
Joshua Walker (Upper Marlboro, Md./Riverdale Baptist) just missed a double-double, finishing with seven points and a career-best 11 rebounds while McGee led the way in assists with seven, which also matched his career and season-high in this category.
David Robinson Jr. had a big second half to end the game as the leading scorer with 24 points on 9-of-15 shooting while Malik Archer, who had 12 points at the half, finished with just 15 points in the setback.
The first half saw a slow start for both sides with just nine points between the two in the early going before the Golden Rams surged ahead to a 16-point, 32-16 lead with 5:19 to play in the opening half.
This lead came off an impressive barrage of three's from Smith and
Elijah Allen (Dover, Del./Dover) which took the game from a 22-16 game to a 32-16 game. Behind a 13-point half from Smith and 11 more from McGee along with another big three by Allen, West Chester continued to extend its lead, eventually leading by 20 with a 1:15 to play before the halftime break.
Holy Family cut into the lead slightly heading into the halftime break, making the score 42-25 in favor of the Golden Rams heading to the half.
West Chester shot 42.1 % (8-of-19) from three-point range while also shooting 42.9 % (15-of-35) from the field and going 4-for-6 from the line through the first 20 minutes of action.
For Holy Family, Malik Archer led the way with 12 points as the lone Tiger in double figures as the team shot just 30.0 % (9-of-30) from the field and 25.0 % (3-of-12) from beyond the arc through the first half of action.
Holy Family attempted to battle back in the second half, going on an 8-0 run midway through the half, which cut the West Chester lead back to single digits with 10:20 to play before a 8-0 WCU run over the next two-and-a-half minutes of play gave West Chester a 65-49 lead with just under eight minutes to play.
With a double-digit lead again, West Chester closed the game out impressively, eventually stretching the lead back to 20 en route to an 80-60 win over visiting Holy Family.
As a team, West Chester shot 47.0 % (31-of-66) from the field and 32.3 % (11-of-26) from deep while also going 7-of-12 from the line in the victory. For Holy Family, the Tigers shot just 30.0 % from the field in the first half, ending the game with a 37.3 % (22-of-59) field goal shooting effort in addition to a 7-of-21 (33.3 %) shooting performance from beyond the arc.
West Chester ended the game with an impressive 47-29 lead in rebounding behind the 11-rebound effort from Walker along with eight rebounds by Barrett. West Chester ended the game with a 17-9 lead in second-chance points and a 19-11 advantage in points off turnovers, despite losing the turnover battle by a 15-14 margin. Despite losing the turnover battle, McGee and
Anthony Purnell Jr. (Chester, Pa./Kiski) tied for the game lead in steals, coming away with three each in the non-league triumph.
Up Next:
West Chester will now have 10 days off until its next game, which will see WCU head to Pitt-Johnstown on December 18
th for the first of two out west before facing nationally-ranked IUP on Monday the 19
th in what will be the team's final game before the Holiday Break.
