BLOOMSBURG, Pa.- Following an impressive double OT win over Millersville on Wednesday night, the West Chester men's basketball team (20-7, 15-6) has shifted its attention to its regular-season finale at Bloomsburg (1-24, 1-20) on Saturday afternoon beginning at 1 p.m. as the first game of the doubleheader between the Golden Rams and Huskies on Saturday afternoon.
Series Information
With ample history between one another, West Chester holds a slim 73-69 lead in the all-time series against Bloomsburg after winning each of the last four and six of the last seven against the Huskies. West Chester swept both ends of the season series a year ago, including a 91-58 victory in Hollinger last February.
In the first meeting between West Chester and Bloomsburg, the Golden Rams trailed only briefly in the opening minutes of regulation before roaring back and eventually leading by as many as 31 in a convincing victory over Bloomsburg at the end of January.
Elijah Allen scored 16 points as one of four players in double figures, while
Anthony Purnell Jr. and
Joshua Walker each finished with 15 in the victory.
Flock Talk
West Chester returns to action after another cardiac victory on Wednesday night, needing more late-game heroics and eventually two overtimes to pull out a 96-91 victory over Millersville in front of a strong Hollinger Field House crowd. West Chester led throughout much of the game, trailing for 33 seconds of total time and only trailing by a point in regulation; however, a game billed as a clash of titans was not meant to be decided in just 40 minutes. The game went to overtime, and in the first OT, Millersville took its largest lead of the night (four points) before a 6-0 West Chester run, including five from
Dame Wall, allowed West Chester to erase the deficit and hold a two-point lead in the closing seconds. Millersville hit a jumper with just over six seconds to play, which after a miss by WCU, forced another OT. In the second OT,
Elijah Allen ensured the home fans would go home happy after the second five minutes, scoring the game's final five points, starting with a driving-and-one layup to earn a 96-91 victory. Fan's must go back 43 years to find the Golden Rams last win over an opponent that is now a league foe, as West Chester defeated East Stroudsburg (in what was not a PSAC East game at the time due to WCU being a DI member of the ECC), in double overtime during the 1979-80 season.
West Chester has earned five of its 20 victories on the season in the final three seconds or OT, defeating Lincoln on a buzzer-beater in OT to open the year, marking the team's first OT game since 2019 before sweeping Shepherd on a pair of buzzer beaters in the second half of the season and defeating Lock Haven on a three with under three seconds to play before besting Millersville in double-OT last night.
Wednesday night's victory also sets West Chester assured West Chester it would be at least a two-seed, which gives the Golden Rams a first-round bye and the right to host a Wednesday quarterfinal on March 1. Beyond this, West Chester will also have the chance to secure its first PSAC East Regular Season title since 2006 with a win on Saturday afternoon at Bloomsburg, combined with a Shippensburg loss against Lock Haven. While Lock Haven and Shepherd are locked in as the five and six seeds, West Chester is the lone team with any sort of clarity as to where they will be seeded when the PSAC Tournament begins next week, as the Golden Rams are guaranteed to be no lower than a two. Shippensburg, East Stroudsburg, and Millersville still find themselves in a mix for the other three spots in the top four, with the potential to land in any of those positions, pending the results of their games and other games on Saturday.
Scouting Bloomsburg
Bloomsburg enters play following a loss against Kutztown on Wednesday night, falling by a 78-69 final after being outscored 38-32 in the first half. The six-point first-half deficit was too much for the Huskies to overcome as Bloomsburg fell to 1-24 overall and 1-20 in league action. The Huskies shot 39.7 % from the field and 34.8 % from three-point range while also ending the game with a 37-36 lead in rebounding after a 19-point/11-rebound double-double from Jake Nelson. Louie Wild led the team in assists, finishing with five in the setback.
Wild and Nelson led the way in scoring in the first meeting between the two Division foes, finishing with 19 and 18, respectively, in a convincing win for the Golden Rams. For the year, Wild has led the Huskies in both scoring (14.8/g) and assists (3.4/g), while Nelson is second on the team in scoring (12.8/g) and first in rebounding (8.5/g) entering the final game of the regular season. As a team, Bloomsburg has shot 42.1 % from the field and 32.4 % from three-point range while also shooting 70.4 % from the line throughout the 2023 season.
Up Next:
West Chester will have a first-round bye on Monday before returning to action at home in the Quarterfinals on Wednesday night.
