ERIE, Pa.-Emily McAteer (Thornton, Pa./Garnet Valley) finished with 23 points and 11 rebounds, but it was not enough to help the No. 9/14 West Chester University women's basketball team (7-2, 2-1) defeat Mercyhurst (7-2, 3-0) as the homestanding Lakers escaped by a 75-71 final on Monday afternoon.
With her 23-point performance, McAteer also eclipsed the 1,000-point plateau for her career, scoring the milestone point with an offensive rebound and second-chance layup off a miss by Johnson early in the fourth quarter. McAteer scored well over half of her 1,000 points as a Golden Ram, scoring 353 of the 1,000 away from WCU, while the remainder came wearing the Purple and Gold, including 515 points a year ago.
West Chester led by as many as nine at various points throughout the first half, but it was a third-quarter run by the Lakers, combined with a cold start to the second half by the Golden Rams, which allowed the hosts to build a 14-point lead and improve to 7-2 on the year and 3-0 in league action. West Chester battled back in the fourth quarter, showing strong resiliency as the team pulled to within four in the early stages and back to within six late, but Mercyhurst put the game away at the line, escaping with a four-point victory over the Golden Rams.
McAteer was one of four Golden Rams in double figures and one of two with a double-double as
Leah Johnson (Columbus, N.J./Notre Dame) finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds in the setback, while
Michelle Kozicki (Wilmington, Del./Padua) and
Anna McTamney (Plymouth Meeting, Pa./Plymouth Whitemarsh) finished with 13 and 11, respectively.
Lauren Klare and Bailey Kuhns finished with 19 and 17 each to lead the Lakers in scoring, while Julia Buchman added 11 as the third and final Laker in double figures.
West Chester jumped out to an early 9-0 lead in the first two and a half minutes of playing, forcing the hosts into three early turnovers. Mercyhurst finally got on the board with seven minutes to play in the first quarter, connecting on its first shot on its third attempt of the afternoon, cutting the deficit to 9-3.
After scoring its first points of the night on a three from Danielle Grim, Mercyhurst went on a run of its own, cutting the Golden Ram lead to 11-9 with five minutes to play in the first quarter. McAteer halted the run with a shot clock-beating three to extend the lead back to 14-9 while also increasing her first-quarter scoring total to eight. The Lakers continued their comeback bid, evening the score at 14-14 with 3:18 to play in the first before a quick and-one layup by
Michelle Kozicki (Wilmington, Del./Padua) gave the Golden Rams back a 17-14 lead.
Playing in her old home gym, grad transfer
Jayde Boyd (Pittsburgh, Pa./Oakland Catholic) drained a three for her first points of the afternoon, extending the West Chester lead back to 24-17 with just over a minute to play in the opening quarter. Mercyhurst responded with another made three, drilling its fifth of the opening quarter on just 10 attempts, which cut the deficit back down to four, but McAteer continued her huge first quarter, scoring her 12th point of the frame with 13 seconds to go, sending the Golden Rams to the second with a 26-20 lead.
In the second quarter,
Anna McTamney (Plymouth Meeting, Pa./Plymouth Whitemarsh) got the West Chester lead back to nine off a perfect feed from Johnson, restoring a 32-23 lead for the visiting Golden Rams. Following a similar script to the first quarter, Mercyhurst rallied back, answering with a 7-0 run, cutting the Golden Ram lead to 32-30 heading into the media timeout. In danger of being outscored in the second quarter for the second time all season (with the lone other instance being a road loss at Jefferson), McAteer drained her third free of the first half to halt the run and extend the lead back to 35-30. Mercyhurst erased this deficit again, carrying a 42-41 lead into the halftime break, marking the first all season that the Golden Rams trailed heading into the halftime break.
McAteer led all scorers in the first half, finishing with 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field, including a 60.0 % (3-for-5) effort from beyond the arc, while Kozicki added nine points of her own on 3-of-5 shooting. Bailey Kuhns led the way for Mercyhurst with 10 points, while Lauren Klare added nine of her own on 3-of-6 shooting from three-point range.
As a team, West Chester shot 46.9 % (15-of-32) from the field and 44.4 % (4-of-9) from three-point range to go along with 77.8 % (7-of-9) shooting from the line. Despite the halftime deficit, West Chester also ended the first half with a 22-12 lead in rebounding and a 9-2 lead in second-chance points. Mercyhurst ended the first half with its first lead of the game after shooting 48.3 % (14-of-29) from the field and 47.1 % (8-of-17) from three-point territory while also going 6-for-8 (75.0 %) at the line.
After trailing for just the last three seconds of the first half, the Golden Rams saw their deficit grow to start the second half as Danielle Grim took advantage of an early turnover by Johnson to extend the lead to 44-41. Johnson cut the deficit back to one (44-43) before the Lakers scored the next two baskets to take a 48-43 lead, eventually expanding this lead to 51-43 with just over six minutes to play in the third. West Chester went cold to open the half, connecting on just 2-of-8 from the field, while its hosts continued to capitalize from three-point range, extending the lead to 54-45 with just under five minutes to play in the third. The run continued for Mercyhurst as the Lakers extended their lead to 56-45, eventually carrying a 62-48 lead into the fourth after outscoring West Chester 20-7 in the third. West Chester shot just 23.1 % from the field in the third, connecting on 3-of-13 attempts while also 1-for-4 at the line as the Lakers extended their halftime advantage.
West Chester opened the fourth quarter on an impressive run of its own, scoring the first 10 points of the frame to cut the lead to 62-58. Mercyhurst attempted to pull away late, but West Chester remained tough down the stretch, hanging around within six points throughout much of the frame. In the closing seconds of regulation, McAteer continued her impressive afternoon, eventually finishing with a season-high in both points (23) and rebounds (11), but it was not enough to help West Chester avoid its first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) loss of the season as Mercyhurst escaped by a 75-71 final.
West Chester shot below 40.0 % from the field in both the third and fourth quarter, ending the game with a 39.0 % (23-of-59) field goal percentage and a 29.4 % (5-of-17) effort from three-point territory while also connecting on 20-of-27 (74.1 %) from the stripe. West Chester also ended the game with a 45-32 lead in rebounding, including an 11-6 lead on the offensive glass, which led to a 16-6 lead in second-chance points. West Chester also finished the game with a 27-20 lead in points in the paint and a 7-3 lead in points off the break after ending the game with a 5-4 lead in steals.
As a team, Mercyhurst shot 41.4 % (24-of-58) from the field and 35.3 % (12-of-34) from three-point territory while also shooting 57.7 % (15-of-26) at the line.
Mercyhurst also ended the game with a 14-10 lead in turnovers, leading to an 11-8 lead in points off turnovers as the Lakers pulled the upset over the nationally ranked Golden Rams.
Up Next:
West Chester returns to action tomorrow night at No. 5/7 Gannon beginning at 5:30 p.m. in its final game before December 30 against Clarion at 1 p.m.
