MILLERSVILLE, Pa.- After falling to Millersville inside Pucillo Gymnasium just one week ago, the West Chester men's basketball team (17-12) returned to action on Wednesday evening looking to reverse its fortunes from a week ago and knock off the top-seed Millersville Marauders (24-5) in the PSAC Quarterfinals. In its first home quarterfinal since the 2007 season, the Millersville faithful packed Pucillo Gymnasium and helped will the home-standing Marauders to the 70-54 victory and a return to the PSAC Semifinals.
West Chester led for much of the first half, jumping out to an early 14-1, and carried a two-point lead into the halftime break, but Millersville outscored West Chester 20-11 over the first 10 minutes of the half to erase the halftime deficit and take a 47-40 lead with 10 minutes to play in regulation. Coming down the stretch, Millersville extended its lead to as many as 18 points en route to a 70-54 victory over the Golden Rams.
In the second half, West Chester was 0-of-8 from three and shot just 32.1 % (9-of-28) from the field, ending the game with a 30.2 % (19-of-63) field-goal shooting performance while shooting 14.3 (3-of-21) from the field and 72.2 % from the line in the setback.
Smith ended the game with a team-high 16 points on 6-of-14 shooting while
Kyle McGee (Jersey City, N.J./St. Mary's of the Assumption0 finished with 14 of his own in the season-ending loss. Allen also ended in double figures, finishing with 12 points to continue a strong stretch of play for the relative newcomer to the Golden Ram rotation.
West Chester jumped out to an early 9-1 lead, holding Millersville without a made field goal and just 1-of-4 from the line through the first three and a half minutes, with five points from
Robert Smith (Philadelphia, Pa./Bishop McDevitt) to hold the early advantage.
West Chester extended its lead to 14-1 with under 15 minutes to play in the first half before the Marauders went on a 7-0 run to cut the Golden Ram lead to 14-8 and bring the Pucillo Gym crowd back to life. Millersville continued its comeback, outscoring West Chester 9-6 to cut the deficit to 20-17 with 7:47 to play in the first half.
With 5:41 to play in the half, Millersville took its first lead since leading 1-0 in the early stages of the game when Justin Nwosu drained a corner three from Jaden Faulkner to give the Marauders a 21-20 lead.
Elijah Allen (Dover, Del./Dover), who led West Chester in the first-round victory on Monday evening, snapped a nearly five-minute scoreless streak for West Chester, going 2-of-2 at the line to put West Chester ahead 22-21 with 4:39 to play. West Chester went on a 5-0 run over the next few minutes, taking a 27-21 lead with 2:54 to play in the first half.
Millersville came back and evened the score at 27-27, but West Chester scored the final points of the half on a hook shot by
Eli Barrett (Harrisburg, Pa./Harrisburg) to take a 29-27 lead into the halftime break.
In the first half, neither team shot particularly well from the field as West Chester shot just 28.6 % (10-of-35) from the field and 23.1 % (3-of-13) from three while Millersville shot 31.0 % (9-of-29) from the field and 37.5 % (3-of-8) from deep. The difference-maker in the first half was West Chester's 6-of-6 effort from the line in stark comparison to the Marauders 6-of-14 (42.9 %) performance from the line.
For Millersville, Justin Nwosu led the Marauders in scoring with nine points on 3-of-6 shooting as the Marauders found themselves trailing at the break.
Millersville opened the second half with a 4-0 run over the first two minutes before extending its lead to 38-32 with 14:17 to play in regulation.
With 7:31 to play, Millersville took its largest lead of the game, going up by 11 (53-42) entering the stretch run of the game. As the game winded to its conclusion, Millersville continued to extend its lead, eventually earning a 70-54 victory over the visiting Golden Rams.
Nwosu led Millersville in scoring with a team-high 16 points as one of four players in double figures. Mekhi Hendricks, who was a bright spot for the Marauders in the midst of their difficult first half, ended with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and a perfect 3-of-3 from deep to held lead Millersville past the upset-minded Golden Rams.
Following a poor first-half shooting effort, Millersville shot an improved 43.3 % from the field in the second half and was 14-of-23 (60.9 %) from the line to end the game with a 37.3 % field-goal percentage and a 54.1 % free-throw shooting percentage. Millersville was never able to get hot from three-point territory, shooting just 25.0 % in the second half, ending the game with a 6-of-20 three-point shooting effort.
Millersville ended the game with a 46-42 edge on the glass while West Chester ended the game with a 13-8 advantage in second-chance points.
