WEST CHESTER, Pa.- After its second-buzzer beating victory over Shepherd of the year, the West Chester men's basketball team (18-7, 13-6) returns to action on Saturday afternoon vs Lock Haven (16-8, 12-7) in the second game of a Senior Day doubleheader in Hollinger beginning at 3 p.m.
Series Information
West Chester enters play holding a 33-9 lead in the all-time series over Lock Haven, including a five-game winning streak dating back to the first meeting of the 2019-20 season at Lock Haven, which saw the Bald Eagles escape with an 89-84 victory over the Golden Rams. West Chester has not lost to Lock Haven in Hollinger since the 2016-17 season when the Golden Rams were swept.
West Chester found itself behind early in the first meeting at Lock Haven, trailing by 12 midway through the first half but closed the half out on a 25-9 run to take a four-point lead into the halftime break. West Chester eventually stretched its lead to as many as nine, but Lock Haven would not go away, putting together another run late to pull ahead by four (66-62) with two minutes to play. West Chester closed the game on an 11-2 run, keyed by a pair of back-to-back makes from
Robert Smith (a corner three followed by a pull-up two) as he led the team with 19 to help West Chester pick up a 73-68 comeback victory earlier in January.
Flock Talk
West Chester returns to action on Saturday afternoon following another thrilling victory, which saw
Elijah Allen hit his lone field goal of the night on an off-balance jumper from the right wing to break the hearts of Shepherd fans everywhere once again and lift West Chester to a 64-63 victory. This marked the Golden Rams third buzzer-beating victory of the season and the second over Shepherd after
Joshua Walker, who fouled on Wednesday night, came through with late-game heroics in the first meeting. West Chester led by five early in the first half and would not lead again until time expired, never holding the lead in the second-half and trailing by as many as six in the late stages.
Kyle McGee was impressive late, hitting a pair of big threes with under two minutes to play to help bring West Chester back from the brink. Despite the efforts by McGee, Shepherd still had the opportunity to put the game away at the line, but the Rams missed the front end of the 1-and-1 twice, leaving the door cracked open for West Chester to steal the win.
Prior to Saturday's game, West Chester will honor a trio of seniors in
Dame Wall (Philadelphia, Pa./Constitution), Elijah Barrett (Harrisburg, Pa./Harrisburg), and Marcus Littles (Philadelphia, Pa./Neumann Goretti). This trio has helped contribute to the Golden Rams success in recent years as Littles completes his third season as a Golden Ram while Barrett and Wall will finish their second seasons wearing the Purple and Gold at the conclusion of the 2022-23 campaign. As a trio, this group has appeared in 142 games with 48 career starts, logging well over 2,000 minutes played at WCU. Barrett reached the 1,000-point plateau for his collegiate career earlier this season and is the leading scorer of the group, which has seen the three players combine to score over 750 points over the course of the last three seasons while also corralling 519 rebounds and helping West Chester win 55 games, playing to a record of 55-29, winning over 65 % of its games in the last three seasons.
With an 18-7 record this year, West Chester finds itself squarely in consideration for a spot in the NCAA Tournament later in March as well as a potential top-two seed in the PSAC Tournament if the Golden Rams can take care of business in the next three games. The season has not been without some dramatic moments for the Golden Rams as the team has earned three of its 18 wins in the last second of games, including its first OT game and first OT win since December 2019 with a buzzer-beating overtime victory over Lincoln, courtesy of a
Kyle McGee (Jersey City, N.J./St. Mary's of the Assumption) floater before sweeping Shepherd with buzzer-beaters from
Joshua Walker (Upper Marlboro, Md./Riverdale Baptist) and
Elijah Allen (Dover, Del./Dover).
Scouting Lock Haven
Lock Haven enters played in the midst of a two-game losing streak, following a 98-61 thumping at the hands of Kutztown last Saturday afternoon. Lock Haven fell behind early, trailing 52-28 at the half, and was unable to rally in the second, shooting just 38.2 % from the field and 11.8 % from deep while also committing 14 turnovers in the loss. Senior forward James Pirce, who ranks third on the team in scoring (10.4/g) and first in rebounding (7.0/g), led the way with a double-double, finishing with 16 points and 11 rebounds while also posting a team-high three blocks in the loss. Jayy Davis, who leads the team in scoring, averaging 14.5 per game, finished with 12 points, while Eli Washington, who is third on the team in scoring, averaging 11.8 points per game, finished with 14 against Kutztown last week.
Usually, a solid shooting team, shooting 45.9 % from the field and 34.9 % from deep on the season, Lock Haven struggled mightily in these areas a week ago, shooting far below its season averages in the loss at Kutztown, mustering just 61 points as compared to its usual 74.1 points per game scoring average. Entering the stretch run of the season, Lock Haven finds itself about to enter a truly difficult stretch of basketball to end the season as it looks to improve its PSAC Tournament seeding with games against West Chester, East Stroudsburg, and Shippensburg to close out the 2022-23 season.
Up Next:
West Chester returns to action next Wednesday night against Millersville beginning at 7:30 p.m. in its regular-season home finale.
