BLOOMSBURG, Pa.- Elijah Allen (Dover, Del./Dover) led all scorers with 22 points on 8-of-17 shooting to help guide the West Chester University men's basketball team (13-7, 10-4) to an important 81-68 road victory over Bloomsburg (4-16, 2-12) on Wednesday night.
In a game that featured seven ties and six lead changes, West Chester found itself locked in a great game throughout night, finding itself tied or within a few points of the Huskies for the majority of the first 30 minutes of regulation. Neither side held a double-digit lead until the final minutes of regulation as the Golden Rams stretched their lead to 11 with just over three minutes to play before leading by as many as 15 with 1:47 to go after a late 9-0 run, which was the best scoring run of the night by either team.
Allen was one of four Golden Rams in double figures as
Joshua Walker (Upper Marlboro, Md./Riverdale Baptist) finished with 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting while also collecting seven rebounds and recording five blocks.
Jordan Kellier (Kingston, Jamaica/Redemption Christian) picked up his ninth double-double of the year, finishing with 11 points and 17 rebounds, finishing one shy of his career-high for rebounding, which he set earlier this season at Wilmington.
Robert Smith (Philadelphia, Pa./Bishop McDevitt) played an important role down the stretch to help West Chester erase a deficit and pull away, finished with 17 points, including a team-high three makes from long distance. Smith also finished with eight rebounds, which matched his career high.
West Chester and Bloomsburg traded runs throughout the early going as West Chester surged out to a 17-10 lead with 12:11 to play in the first half after an 8-0 run before the Huskies answered with a 6-0 run of their own to make the score 17-16 just three minutes later.
West Chester extended its lead once again, pulling back out to a 23-16 and eventually a 26-21 lead after a made three by Purnell Jr., but Bloomsburg continued to hang around, responding with a 5-2 run to cut the lead to 28-26 with 3:27 to play until halftime. The Huskies continued to fight throughout the first half, and this paid dividends as the home team closed out the first half on a 10-5 run to take a 34-33 lead into the halftime break.
Louie Wild finished the first half tied for the team lead in scoring with eight points, matching the effort of Jagger Dressler and Matt Bengel through the first 20 minutes of play.
Allen led the Golden Rams in scoring in the first half, scoring 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting as the lone player on either team in double figures.
West Chester shot 36.4 % (12-of-33) from the field in the first half, including a 3-for-9 (33.3 %) effort from deep, while Bloomsburg shot 37.1 % (13-of-35) from the field, including a 37.5 % (6-of-16) effort from three-point range.
Out of the halftime break, West Chester found itself on the wrong end of a 12-7 Bloomsburg run through the first four minutes of the second half, which saw the hosts take a 46-40 over the visiting Golden Rams. Walker helped the Golden Rams answer quickly, scoring the next six points on his own to even the score up at 46-46 with 14:50 to play.
A Mondyu Richards layup with 14 minutes to play gave the Huskies a 53-51 lead, but West Chester responded with an impressive 18-7 run, led by five points each from Walker and Smith, to take a 69-60 lead with under seven minutes to play in regulation.
West Chester continued to hold a nine-point lead as the game ticked under five minutes to play as neither team scored for just over two minutes. Desmond Freeman snapped the scoreless drought with a three for Bloomsburg, which made the score 69-63, but
Isaiah Thomas-McClain (Cheltenham, Pa./Cheltenham) hit a clutch three just under 30 seconds later to restore a nine-point lead. After a miss by Wild down the other end, Allen snatched the rebound and raced down the floor, hitting a layup with 3:14 to play that gave the Golden Rams their largest lead of the game (74-63; 11) with 3:12 to play in regulation.
Following a timeout, Smith came away with a steal on the Huskies' ensuing possession, and the Golden Rams turned this into points as Allen hit another driving layup to stretch the lead to 76-63. With its largest lead of the game in hand and under two minutes to play in regulation, West Chester held off the upset-minded Huskies down the stretch to earn a gritty 81-68 road victory on Wednesday night.
After shooting below 40.0 % in the first half, West Chester was much improved in the second, shooting 51.4 % (19-of-37) from the field to complete the comeback and increase its shooting percentage to 44.3 % (31-of-70) for the game. The Golden Rams were 4-of-10 from long range in the second half, finishing the game with a 36.8 % (7-of-19) three-point shooting percentage while also going 12-for-14 (85.7 %) from the line in the victory.
Travis Elmore led a quartet of Huskies in double figures with 13 points on 6-of-14 shooting as Bengel, Wild, and Dressler all finished with 13 points, respectively, in the setback.
Bloomsburg shot an even 50.0 % (12-of-24) from the field in the second half in an attempt to shock the Golden Rams on the final night of the first half of PSAC East play, but the Huskies were unable to pull the upset in Nelson Field House. Bloomsburg ended the game shooting 42.4 % (25-of-59) from the field, including an 11-for-26 (42.3 %) effort from beyond the arc. The Huskies also went 7-for-11 at the line, converting 63.6 % of their opportunities from the charity stripe.
West Chester ended the game with a 46-31 lead in rebounding, including an 18-9 lead on the offensive glass, which resulted in a 30-10 lead in second-chance points. West Chester also won the turnover battle by a 13-10 margin, ending the game with a 15-12 lead in points off turnovers, a 46-26 lead in points in the paint, and a 12-9 lead in points off the break.
Up Next:
West Chester returns to action on Saturday afternoon against first-place Lock Haven beginning at 3 p.m. in Hollinger Field House.
