Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
WCU foiled by California
Nationally-ranked Vulcans thump Golden Rams
WEST CHESTER >> On Friday at Hollinger Fieldhouse, the West Chester women learned the hard way just how far it must go, particularly on defense, to challenge one of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference’s elite basketball programs.
The Golden Rams actually put together one of the more impressive offensive performances this season, but were never able to counter Cals’ torrid shooting and devastating up-tempo attack. The eighth-ranked Vulcans prevailed, 107-73, to drop WCU to 4-4 in the PSAC East, but the Rams (4-8 overall) remain in a two-way tie for first place with East Stroudsburg, who lost Friday at Millersville.
“We need to learn and take from this game what we can, and then let the rest fall off of our shoulders because nothing has changed for us,” said West Chester head coach Kiera Wooden. “Our path to the championship has always been through the east-
“We need to learn and take from this game what we can, and then let the rest fall off of our shoulders because nothing has changed for us. Our path to the championship has always been through the eastern conference.” – West Chester coach Kiera Wooden
ern conference.”
It looked like a lay-up drill early, and when West Chester tightened defensively, the Vulcans started making perimeter shots. In all, Cal dished out 32 assists, topped WCU 56-38 in the paint and never trailed. The Vulcans improve to 13-1 overall, and 7-1 in the topheavy PSAC West.
“Unless we make it to the NCAA Tournament, I don’t think will see a team as good as (Cal) is,” Wooden acknowledged. “Don’t get me wrong, the PSAC East is not a cake-walk by any means, but (Cal) is by far one of the premier teams in the nation.”
The setback put an end to a modest two-game winning streak for the Rams, who have critical division clashes at East Stroudsburg and Shippensburg on Monday and Wednesday. “This game does not define us,” Wooden said. “We still have to win the eastern conference to get to the PSAC Championship. That still holds through. And even though this was a conference game, it wasn’t the eastern division.
“We can’t hang our heads. We would have liked for it to be closer, but we fought.”
Among the nation’s top10 ranked teams and armed with the conference’s top two scorers, Cal opened the contest as advertised. The Vulcans connected on 11 of their first 13 shot attempts to quickly establish a double-digit lead.
“We were a little shellshocked by their pressure and their athleticism. But we calmed down,” Wooden said.
Down by as much as 16 in the first half, WCU trailed 55-42 at the break despite shooting a toasty 56 percent from the floor. Cal registered 21 assists on its 22 first half buckets.
The Rams pulled to within 12, at 65-53, early in the second half but the Vulcans promptly reeled off the next 10 points to end any comeback threat. From there, the only intrigue was whether Cal was going to reach triple digits. It got there with three minutes to spare.
“We need to play more defensive-minded,” said junior forward Madison Torresin. “The more stops you get the more we can go, and we like to push the ball, and transition is where we get most of our points. Cal made most of their shots, so it was hard for us to push.”
West Chester – who’s now dropped five straight to Cal (22-3 all-time) – boasted four scorers in double figures, with Tori Smick leading the way with 16. Torresin added 15 points, while Camden Boehner and Porscha Speller chipped in 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Miki Glenn, the conference’s leading scorer, poured in 32 points (on 11 of 18 shooting), and added eight assists for Cal.
“If anything, I can take away the effort: we fought for the entire 40 minutes and didn’t quit,” Wooden said.
“We tried multiple defenses, (Cal) was just hitting shots. And when they are doing that, you’ve got to be able to counter that by making shots of your own, and there were a couple stretches where we couldn’t knock them down consistently enough.”
The Vulcans forced 27 WCU turnovers and turned them into 32 points. And the final margin of victory was 34.