Women's Basketball Set to Open PSAC Tournament vs Kutztown on Wednesday Night in Hollinger

WEST CHESTER, Pa.- After a 64-48 victory over Bloomsburg on Senior Day to conclude a perfect 16-0 regular season in Hollinger Field House, the second-seeded West Chester University women's basketball team (23-5, 18-4) has shifted its attention to its PSAC Quarterfinal matchup vs third seed Kutztown (15-14, 12-10) on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.

With a ticket back to the PSAC Semifinals on the line, West Chester will be looking for its fifth PSAC Tournament victory against Kutztown in six tries, with the last Tournament meeting between the two rivals coming in 2018 when West Chester won a Quarterfinal over the Golden Bears by an 81-72 final.

Fan Information

Tickets: All ticket sales for the 2024 PSAC Tournament are cashless, and tickets must be purchased online via this link.  Adult tickets will cost $10, while students ages k-12 will cost $5. There are no complimentary tickets for the PSAC Tournament. However, PSAC passes will be honored, and students from PSAC Member Institutions with valid, current IDs will be admitted free of charge.

With a Win

With a victory on Wednesday night, West Chester would advance to its third PSAC Semifinal since 2018 and would face the Gannon/Edinboro winner in the semifinals on Saturday afternoon. The location of Saturday's semifinal has yet to be determined, as it will be based on the winners of Wednesday's Quarterfinals. Lock Haven is the top seed and will have hosting privileges, provided that the Bald Eagles defeat Millersville in their Quarterfinal on Wednesday evening. Should Lock Haven stumble, West Chester would find itself in line quickly to host Championship weekend in Hollinger.
West Chester faced both Edinboro and Gannon earlier this season. During the first crossover weekend of the season, West Chester dispatched Edinboro at home by a 79-55 final before falling to nationally ranked Gannon in Erie by an 86-71 final in the final game before the Division II Holiday Break.

Series Information

West Chester will kick off its 2024 PSAC Tournament on Wednesday night vs. Kutztown after the Golden Bears won their first-round matchup over Mansfield with a final score of 66-48. West Chester and Kutztown have played many good games against each other over the years, as the Golden Rams hold a 49-37 lead in the all-time series after winning each of the last three meetings. West Chester and Kutztown are no strangers to one another in the PSAC Tournament, meeting five times since 2003, with West Chester winning four of those meetings, including each of the last two, with the most recent such occurrence being in 2018 when WCU defeated Kutztown by an 81-72 final in the PSAC Quarterfinals.
 
Last Time They Met

West Chester completed its first season sweep of Kutztown since 2017-18 in mid-February with a 46-39 victory over the Golden Bears in Hollinger on February 14. This low-scoring victory came on the heels of a 73-54 win at Kutztown earlier in the season, which marked the Golden Rams' first win in Keystone Hall since the 2017-18 season. At home against Kutztown, West Chester led by as many as 17 late in the third after a 13-0 run, which seemed to put the game away, but West Chester had to survive a final surge by Kutztown as the Golden Bears went on an 11-0 run late in the fourth to nearly hand West Chester its first and what would have been its only home loss of the season. West Chester scored a season-low 46 points, including just 22 in the second half on 34.0 % shooting, including a 3-for-15 effort from three-point range. Michelle Kozicki (Wilmington, Del./Padua) led the way for West Chester in the victory, finishing with 13 points and 12 rebounds to go along with 12 from Emily McAteer (Thornton, Pa./Garnet Valley) and 10 from Leah Johnson (Columbus, N.J./Notre Dame).

Flock Talk

Wednesday night will mark the beginning of the Golden Rams eighth PSAC Tournament appearance under head coach Kiera Wooden. It will also be the team's sixth PSAC Quarterfinal appearance as the team searches for its third PSAC Semifinal appearance since 2017. West Chester has advanced to the Semifinal round or better of the PSAC Tournament four times under Wooden, with its furthest run being an appearance in the PSAC Championship game at the end of her first season in 2014-15 when the team finished the year in the NCAA Tournament with a record of 24-6. Wednesday night will also mark the second year in a row that West Chester has hosted at least one round of the PSAC Tournament. It will also be the eighth time in the last 10 appearances that West Chester has hosted a game, with the lone two exceptions being the 2022 season when WCU traveled to Shepherd as the sixth seed and the 2013 season when WCU traveled to and fell at Kutztown in the First Round as well.  

West Chester completed an unbeaten regular season at home on Saturday afternoon with a 64-48 senior day victory over Bloomsburg. West Chester trailed early on Saturday, finding itself down seven in the first quarter and down 15-11 heading into the second, but erased the deficit quickly with a 10-0 second-quarter run to carry a 34-27 lead into the halftime break. West Chester led by as many as 19 in the fourth quarter as McAteer poured in a game-high 28 points on 13-of-17 shooting, while Anna McTamney (Plymouth Meeting, Pa./Plymouth Whitemarsh) scored 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting as the lone other Golden Ram in double figures. West Chester shot 46.3 % from the field and 23.1 % from beyond the arc in the victory while also ending the game with a 68.8 % effort at the free-throw line. West Chester ended the game with a 42-12 lead in points in the paint and an 18-15 lead in points off turnovers after winning the turnover battle by a 19-10 margin.

McAteer ranks among the league leaders in scoring, averaging 17.9 points per game, which is second best in the PSAC entering play on Wednesday night thanks in large part to a team-high 53.1 % field goal percentage and a team-best 33 makes from three-point territory. The veteran forward, who recently scored her 1000th career point as a Golden Ram on Saturday after eclipsing the 1,000-point threshold for her career earlier in the season, ranks third in the PSAC in field goal percentage while also ranking sixth in free throw shooting percentage at 79.3 %, just behind Johnson who is fifth with an even 80.0 % on the year.

Johnson has truly had a historic career for the Golden Rams, breaking career records in scoring, assists, and triple-doubles while continuing to rank among the top players in the PSAC in many categories. Averaging 14.8 points per game, Johnson ranks 13^th in the PSAC in scoring and is 12^th in the league in field goal percentage at 42.7 % on the season. Johnson also leads the team and ranks seventh in DII in assists per game, averaging 5.9 per contest, while also ranking third in the league in steals, averaging 2.4 per game. Earlier this season, the graduate student guard became the first DII player since 2022 and the first PSAC player since 2016-17 to record two triple-doubles in the same season, with back-to-back efforts against Mansfield and Millersville. Since then, Johnson has been joined by Laney Beale of Wingate and Morgan Robinson of Jefferson, as both players have managed to register a second triple-double this season. Johnson remains the first player in DII to record a triple-double in back-to-back games since Audrey Tingle did so for West Liberty during the 2021-22 season.

McTamney and Kozicki rank third and fourth on the team in scoring, averaging 10.6 and 10.4 points per game, while Kozicki also leads the team in rebounding, averaging 7.3 per game, just ahead of the 6.9 per game average of McAteer. Kozicki is also second on the team in assists, averaging 2.2 per game, while McAteer is tied with Morgan Warley (West Chester, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) for second on the team in steals, averaging 1.4 per game. Warley has been nothing short of a menace defensively throughout the 2023-24 season, most recently coming away with a tremendous seven steals in a victory at Mansfield back on February 24.

The third and final regional rankings of the year are due to be released on Wednesday afternoon, and West Chester will be watching those rankings closely after checking in seventh in the second rankings of the year a week ago. With the CIAA Tournament complete and Fayetteville State avoiding any upsets en route to the Conference crown, West Chester can exhale somewhat as the Golden Rams found themselves squarely on the bubble a week ago. West Chester is searching for its second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and fifth under head coach Kiera Wooden after advancing to the first Regional Final in school history a year ago. West Chester is currently on a 15-game winning streak, which is the longest in the PSAC and the sixth-longest in DII women's basketball, while also riding a 23-game home winning streak, which is also the longest in the PSAC and sixth in DII.

West Chester ranks third in the PSAC in both scoring and scoring defense, scoring an average of 71.4 points per game while holding opponents to an average of 54.3 points per game. West Chester shoots 43.2 % from the field, which is third in the PSAC and first in the PSAC East, while holding opponents to just 35.7 % shooting, which is fourth best in the PSAC and third in the East, trailing Gannon, Kutztown, and Lock Haven. West Chester also remains one of the top rebounding teams in the league, corralling an average of 40.5 rebounds per game while showing a league-best +8.3 rebound per game advantage over its foes as the Golden Rams limit teams to 32.2 rebounds per game. Additionally, the streaking Golden Rams also lead the PSAC in both turnover margin (+4.3) and assist/turnover ratio (1.20) entering the PSAC Quarterfinals on Wednesday night.

Scouting Kutztown

Kutztown returns to the PSAC Quarterfinals for the third year in a row after appearing in the semifinals during the 2021-22 season. For head coach Janet Malouf, Wednesday night's game marks her 12th PSAC Quarterfinal appearance in her 28 seasons at the helm of the Golden Bears, and the team looks to return to the semifinals for the first time since 2022.

Kutztown started its PSAC Tournament campaign on Monday night with a 66-48 victory over Mansfield in the First Round inside Keystone Arena. Kutztown jumped out to a 21-12 first-quarter lead but saw its lead reduced to five (29-24) heading into the half. The second half was a different story for Malouf's Golden Bears as they outscored the Mounties 37-24 to return to the PSAC Quarterfinals. Kutztown shot 44.2 % from the field in the victory and hit from three-point range 11 times on 24 attempts, shooting 45.8 % from deep while also going 9-for-10 at the stripe. The Golden Bears also finished the game with a 40-39 lead on the glass, which was critical in helping the team overcome 11 potentially costly turnovers in the victory. Leila Hurley led all scorers with 19 points, including five makes from three-point range, while Sydney Pierson corralled seven rebounds and added four points in the victory. Zara Zerman ranked third on the team in scoring with 15 points while also leading the team in assists (3) and blocks (2) in the opening-round victory.

For the year, Kutztown averages 59.9 points per game on 37.9 % shooting from the field and 31.5 % from beyond the arc while also shooting 73.4 % from the line. Defensively, Kutztown holds teams to 55.7 points per game on 35.3 % shooting, which is second-best in the PSAC. Individually, Naia Pulliam has been a steadying force in a turbulent season for Kutztown, averaging a team-best 13.6 points per game while also ranking third in rebounding (4.1/g) and assists (1.8/g). Zerman is second on the team in scoring, averaging 9.4 points per game, while leading the team in assists, averaging 2.5 helpers per game. Olivia Smelas, who added 17 points in the victory a night ago, is third on the team in scoring, averaging 8.6 points per game, while also ranking second in assists, averaging 1.8 per game, while leading the group in rebounding (7.2/g) and steals (1.6/g).