WEST CHESTER, Pa.-West Chester (17-7, 12-6) got a career night from
Elijah Allen (Dover, Del./Dover) and a Triple Double from
Kyle McGee (Jersey City, N.J./St. Mary's of the Assumption) as it completed its first season sweep of East Stroudsburg (18-6, 12-6) since the 2008-09 season with an impressive 106-98 victory over the visiting Warriors on Wednesday night.
This victory, which was the most points West Chester has scored since the 2019-20 season and is believed to be the most the team has ever scored against ESU, surpassing its previous high of 101 from the 2017-18 season, catapulted West Chester back into third in the PSAC Eastern Division, and helped West Chester avoid a losing streak entering the stretch run of the 2022-23 season. Tonight's victory also helped West Chester clinch a spot in the PSAC Tournament when it gets underway at the end of February.
McGee's triple-double is known to be the first under head coach
Damien Blair and is also believed to be the first in school history . McGee's 11-point, 11 assist, and 10 rebounds effort made him one of three Golden Rams in double figures as
Elijah Allen (Dover, Del./Dover) finished with a career-high 29 on 10-of-17 shooting while
Robert Smith (Philadelphia, Pa./Bishop McDevitt) finished with 27 in the win over the Warriors. McGee's 11 assists is a new career high for him while also going down as the most in a single game by a West Chester player since Matt Penecale's 10-assist day vs Lock Haven in February 2019.
Carlos Pepin nearly matched Allen's stellar performance, finishing with 27 points and seven rebounds as one of five Warriors in double figures, but it was not enough to overcome the stellar effort by the Golden Rams trio.
West Chester trailed only briefly in this contest, finding itself behind by four points early, trailing for the first 3:35 of regulation before pulling away and rolling to a 106-98 victory over East Stroudsburg.
East Stroudsburg got out to an early four-point lead just over two minutes into the game before West Chester roared back, taking a 17-11 lead with 11:38 to play following a made three by
Anthony Purnell Jr. (Chester, Pa./Kiski Prep) before eventually extending its lead to as many as 18 with 7:16 to play in the first half behind 12 early points from Smith.
East Stroudsburg closed the half well, using a 7-0 run late in the half to pull back within 10, making the score 45-36 before stretching the back to 11 heading into the halftime break.
After a difficult night of three-point shooting on Monday at Shippensburg, West Chester was on fire from deep early on Wednesday, ending the half shooting 8-of-17 (47.1 %) from three and 20-for-39 (51.3 %) from the field as a whole as Smith led all scorers with 15 points in a great first half for the sophomore guard. Allen also finished the first half in double figures, ending the half with 11 on 4-of-9 shooting, including a 2-for-5 effort from beyond the arc to help West Chester out to its early lead.
Carlos Pepin led ESU in scoring through the opening 20 minutes, scoring 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field while going 5-for-8 from the line as ESU shot an even 50.0 % (15-of-30) from the field and 12-of-19 (63.2 %) from the line while also going 3-for-12 (25.0 %) from deep in the opening half.
After its best first-half offensive effort of the season to take an 11-point lead into the break, West Chester nearly matched its best second-half effort of the year with a 51-point second half, marking the third time this season that West Chester scored over 50 points in the second half as the Golden Rams held off ESU to earn the victory. ESU tried to mount a comeback late and got the deficit down to as few as seven with just over a minute to play before the Golden Rams put the game out of reach at the line with an impressive 6-for-8 effort at the stripe down the stretch.
This 6-for-8 effort at the line helped West Chester end the game with an 82.6 % (19-of-23) free-throw percentage while also ending the game shooting 50.7 % (38-of-75) from the field and 11-for-26 (42.3 %) from deep after shooting north of 50 % from the field in both the first and second half of action.
East Stroudsburg shot just 43.1 % (31-of-72) from the field and 8-for-27 (29.6 %) from deep while also shooting 73.7 % (28-of-38) from the line in the setback. West Chester also ended the game with an impressive 50-39 lead in the rebounding battle, which led to 16 second-chance points. West Chester also ended the game with a 26-21 lead in points off the break and 24-bench points led by a nine-point effort from Purnell Jr. Despite the victory, West Chester did lose the turnover battle by a 14-9 margin, thus, costing the team in the points off turnovers battle, losing this by a narrow 18-11 margin in the crucial PSAC East victory Wednesday night.
Up Next:
West Chester returns to action on Wednesday after a well-deserved day off on Saturday with a visit to Shepherd beginning at 7:30 p.m.
