MILLERSVILLE, Pa.- The West Chester men's basketball team (16-10, 10-10) took to the road on Wednesday evening to face PSAC East leading Millersville (22-5, 16-5) in a game with major playoff implications for both sides. West Chester fell behind early and despite a late-game rally, was unable to complete the comeback, falling to Millersville by a 92-80 final score on Wednesday night.
Despite the setback, West Chester can take some joy from the fact that it was able to secure the fourth seed in the upcoming PSAC Tournament as a result of other results around the PSAC on Wednesday evening as Shippensburg (18-8, 15-6) defeated Shepherd (12-15, 8-13) by a 79-65 final to allow West Chester to secure a first-round home game in the PSAC Tournament when it begins on Monday, February 28
th.
In the first half, West Chester fell behind early, finding itself trailing 42-26 with 3:48 to play in the opening half. West Chester closed out the half on a 8-6 run to trim the deficit to 48-34 heading into the second half of play.
In the first half,
Elijah Allen (Dover, Del./Dover) led West Chester in scoring with 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting after making three of his last four shots in the first half. As a team, West Chester shot 41.2 % from the field but was o-of-11 from beyond the arc as the Golden Rams trailed heading into the halftime break.
Millersville meanwhile shot 51.5 % from the field and an even 50.0 % (6-of-12) from three-point range led a 2-for-4 three-point shooting effort from James Sullivan as he ended the half with a team-high 11 points to take an early lead over the Golden Rams once again in the second meeting of the season series.
West Chester's shooting woes continued out of the halftime break as the Golden Rams were just 2-of-9 from the field and 0-for-5 from three in the first four minutes of the second half to fall behind 60-42 with 15:40 to play in regulation.
Despite trailing by as many as 29 points with just under 10 minutes to play in regulation, West Chester mounted a small comeback down the stretch, outscoring Millersville 11-0 over the final 3:11 of regulation as part of a 17-3 run over the final 4:46 but it was not enough to come all the way back in the 92-80 setback at the hands of the Marauders.
After setting a new career-high on Saturday afternoon at Lock Haven, Allen nearly duplicated his performance on Wednesday night, finishing with a team-high 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting as one of three Golden Rams in double figures.
Robert Smith (Philadelphia, Pa./Bishop McDevitt) and
Matt Dade (Collegeville, Pa./Episcopal Academy) also finished in double figures, registering 12 and 11 points, respectively in the setback.
As a team, West Chester shot 42.0 % from the field on the night while also shooting 20.8 % from three, thanks to a 5-of-13 effort in the second half after going 0-of-11 from range in the first half. West Chester also ended the game with a 68.0 % free-throw percentage.
Despite the setback, West Chester ended the game with a 37-36 advantage in rebounding, including a 14-7 advantage on the offensive glass, which resulted in a 21-6 lead in second-chance points.
For Millersville, the Marauders bounced back from their loss at Shepherd in a big way, as five players scored in double figures led by 19 points from James Sullivan and a double-double from Justin Nwosu with 15 points and 13 rebounds to remain even with East Stroudsburg for first place in the PSAC East entering play on Saturday afternoon.
As a team, Millersville shot 52.4 % from the field and 47.6 % from three, including a 50.0 % effort in the first half while also shooting 72.7 % from the line to earn the regular season sweep of the Golden Rams.
West Chester will be back in action on Saturday afternoon vs East Stroudsburg with that contest set to begin at 3 p.m. inside Hollinger Field House.
