MILLERSVILLE, Pa.- The West Chester women's basketball team (7-18, 5-14) is set to return to action on Wednesday evening at Millersville (7-18, 6-14) in need of a victory to keep its playoff hopes alive in the final week of the regular season.
SERIES INFORMATION
Wednesday night's meeting will be the 93
rd known meeting between West Chester and Millersville with the Marauders holding a narrow 47-46 edge in the series over the Golden Rams following a West Chester victory over Millersville inside Hollinger on January 19
th.
In the first meeting of the season series between West Chester and Millersville, the Golden Rams and Marauders traded makes in a game that featured nine lead changes as neither team was able to take a commanding lead. Despite the back-and-forth nature of the contest, West Chester outscored its guests 30-23 in the second half and withstood a late charge by the Marauders to earn the 59-54 midweek victory. Johnson had a career-night for the Golden Rams, pouring in what was at the time a career-high 27 points while also coming away with a game-high six assists, six rebounds, and a career-high six steals in the victory. Freshman
Alexa Abbonizio (Springfield, Pa./Springfield) continued a strong stretch of play, registering another double-digit scoring output with 15 points for her eighth double-figure performance of the year and seventh over the course of the last nine games for West Chester. As a team, West Chester shot 35.1 % from the field and 42.9 % from three-point range while also ending the game with advantages in points off turnovers (25-13) and fast break points (20-8).
FLOCK TALK
West Chester enters play looking to halt a five-game losing streak after a disheartening 85-59 loss at Lock Haven on Saturday afternoon. West Chester opened the game well, avoiding the first quarter shooting drought that had become problematic for the team in recent games, holding a 16-15 lead heading into the second quarter. Unfortunately, the second quarter saw West Chester shoot just 10.0% from the field, being outscored 25-4 over the frame to fall behind by 20 points (40-20) heading into the halftime break. In the second half, West Chester looked to chip away at the deficit early but Lock Haven held on and eventually extended its lead, earning the 26-point victory over the visiting Golden Rams to split the season series.
Leah Johnson (Columbus, N.J./Notre Dame) had a quiet first half but ended the game as the team's leading scorer with 14 points while former Bald Eagle
Bink Redman (York, Pa./William Penn) led the team in rebounding (10) and assists (5) in her return to Thomas Field House.
A component profiled extensively heading into the 2021-22 season was Johnson's need to build off her impressive 2019-20 rookie season. The sophomore guard has done just that in 2021-22, leading the team in most major statistical categories and ranking in the top-10 in the league in points (sixth), assists (third), and steals (first) while ranking just outside the top-10 in rebounding (12
th). With eight double-doubles to her credit this season, Johnson has scored in double figures in 21 of 26 games this season, while registering 10+ rebounds eight times and five or more assists 13 times this season, including a season-high eight vs Shippensburg last Monday evening.
West Chester's playoff hopes remain alive for another week, however, West Chester will need to win each of its two games this week and have Millersville and Mansfield lose in their remaining games to earn the sixth seed in the PSAC Tournament beginning next week.
MARAUDER MENTIONS
For its part, Millersville enters play looking to halt a three-game skid and improve its chances at earning the final spot in the PSAC Tournament beginning next week. In Millersville's last game, which came last Wednesday night at Shepherd, the Marauders battled throughout but Shepherd proved to be too much, earning a 88-66 victory over the visitors. In what has been a familiar story this year, Millersville found itself in an early hole, trailing 24-16 at the end of the first quarter and was unable to dig out of the deficit, despite outscoring Shepherd in the fourth quarter of play. Lauren Lister, who has been a catalyst for Millersville throughout the season, led the team in scoring with 22 points and four assists while Ty Taylor chipped in 13 of her own in the setback. As a team, Millersville shot 46.9 % from the field and 25.0 % from three-point territory while also shooting just 40.0 % from the line in the loss.
For the year, Lister has been the most consistent Marauder in terms of scoring the basketball, averaging 14.0 points per game as the lone Millersville player averaging in double figures on the year.
Lister also ranks in a tie for first on the team in assists, averaging 2.3 per game while also leading the squad in steals, averaging 2.0 thefts per contest. As a team, offense has been at a premium for the Marauders this year, as the Black and Gold rank near the bottom of the PSAC in scoring, averaging just 53.4 points per game, which is ahead of only West Chester's opponent on Saturday in East Stroudsburg. A key factor in Millersville's offensive woes, would be the Marauders production, or lack thereof from the charity stripe, as they rank last in the league in free-throw shooting, shooting just 62.3 % on the season.
UP NEXT
West Chester returns home on Saturday afternoon for its final regular season home game of the year vs East Stroudsburg beginning at 1 p.m. This game will also be senior day for West Chester as the Golden Rams will honor their senior class in a special pregame ceremony beginning at 12:45.
