WEST CHESTER, PA— The West Chester women's basketball team (20-7, 17-4) never trailed and went wire to wire for their 13
th straight PSAC win on Wednesday, moving past Millersville (16-11, 11-10), 62-45.
Record-setting point guard
Leah Johnson (Columbus, NJ/Notre Dame) added to her single season assist total with five assists and 20 points to spark the Golden Rams in the win. Johnson, who set the WCU women's single season assist record on Saturday against Lock Haven and now is adding to that mark with 185 total assists so far in 2022-23.
Emily McAteer (Thornton, PA/Garnet Valley) also starred in the victory and nearly had another double-double with 14 points and eight rebounds for the Golden Rams.
Anna McTamney (Plymouth Meeting, PA/Plymouth Whitemarsh) also contributed with 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
West Chester has clinched at least a top two seed in the PSAC playoffs next week and has earned a bye in the first round. The Golden Rams are currently tied with Shippensburg for first place and will win the PSAC East seeding tie-breaker if they defeat Bloomsburg on Saturday afternoon.
In the home contest at Hollinger Field House against Millersville, both teams started slowly.
Morgan Warley (West Chester, PA/Villa Maria Academy) opened the game with a long three-pointer but after two minutes of play, the score remained 3-0, West Chester. Johnson swished a pair of three-pointers to put the Golden Rams up by 11-3 midway through the opening period and the Golden Rams never looked back. McAteer then hit two bank shots, the second on a nice assist from Johnson and West Chester jumped ahead by 11 points on a McTamney jumpshot from the right wing, 17-6. The first quarter ended with the Golden Rams on top, 22-10.
West Chester shot 9-for-13 in the first period and 4-of-7 from three-point range. Meanwhile, Millersville was looking to play the long-range game but shot just 1-for-9 from three-point land in the opening stanza. Both teams turned the ball over six times in a relatively sloppy first quarter. Johnson had already notched three assists and two steals at that point.
WCU stretched its lead to 30-18 and then 34-21 in a well-played second quarter. Millersville standout Taylor Langan had a solid quarter with five points and four rebounds but finished the half shooting just 2-of-7 from the field. After Warley scored her second basket of the game to make the score 36-21, Morgan Mahoney scored inside for Millersville and Langan hit two free throws to cut the WCU halftime lead to 36-25.
The Golden Rams won the rebounding battle at the half, 19-14, with McTamney grabbing a team-high five boards. Johnson led the hosts with 12 points at the half and she had four assists and two steals. She was the only player in double figures at halftime. West Chester's improved defense forced 11 Marauder turnovers in the first two periods.
The third quarter started off well for the Golden Rams with Johnson swishing a long 2-pointer on the first shot. She then dished a nice pass to McAteer for a basket and the Golden Rams were up, 40-25. But the Marauders battled back and went on a 6-0 run behind scoring by Langan and Makiah Shaw. It was still a competitive contest with 6:40 left in the stanza, with the Rams up by 40-31.
West Chester's dry spell ended there, however.
Maya Carter (Harrisburg, PA/Bishop McDevitt) scored on an assist from McAteer and Johnson hit two free throws to make it 44-31. Johnson later scored on a jump shot from the left side for a 46-33 lead. The quarter ended with a WCU lead of 48-36 thanks to a spinning, left-handed shot by McTamney.
Millersville cut the margin to 10 points again on a basket by Jabria Ingram but a bank shot by McTamney and a jumper by Johnson restored a comfortable lead once more at 52-39. With less than five minutes left, a Langan leaner and a Jaida Parker drive cut the gap to single digits at 52-43. Millersville's pressing defense was causing the Rams some issues on offense and the Marauders were still in the game.
Down the stretch, however, the Golden Rams' poise and experience showed very well. With the Marauders in striking distance (9 point gap), McTamney hit a layup before two bug 3-pointers by
Alexa Abbonizio (Springfield, PA/Springfield) sealed the win for the Rams. Her first 3-pointer pushed the lead to 57-43 with two minutes left and her second long range basket made the final score 62-45 in favor of WCU. Abbonizio finished with 8 points and two assists, with 2 of 4 from 3-point range.
For the game, Johnson led West Chester with 20 points and she played over 38 minutes at her point guard spot. She had just one turnover despite pressing defense by the Millersville guards. McAteer (14) and McTamney (11) were the other double figure scorers for West Chester. The rebounding stats ended up even at 38 boards per team. The Golden Rams forced 21 turnovers and 16 themselves. West Chester had 11 steals in the contest with McAteer leading that department with 4 takeaways. West Chester ended the game with a 18-15 lead in points off turnovers and a 24-22 lead in points in the paint.
West Chester shot 42.6 % (26-of-61) from the field and 31.6 % (6-of-19) from three-point territory, while also going 4-for-6 from the line in the victory. Millersville shot 33.3 % (19-of-57) from the field and 1-for-18 (5.6 %) from deep while also shooting an even 50.0 % (6-of-12) from the line in the setback.
NEXT UP: The Golden Rams (20-7) will go for their 21st win of the season and 14
th in a row when they travel to Bloomsburg for a 3 pm tip-off this Saturday. That is the final regular season game for the Golden Rams before they host a PSAC playoff game next Wednesday.
