WCU shades Millersville

MILLERSVILLE » With a consensus top-25 national ranking -including No. 13 by the D2SIDA poll -- the undefeated West Chester men’s basketball team was expected to roll into Pucillo Gymnasium and blast Millersville. But that is definitely not what happened.

The Golden Rams needed a clutch late-game bucket from junior guard Matt Penecale to sweat out a 75-73 squeaker over the Marauders on Wednesday in order to keep their unblemished mark intact. Off to the best start of any team in program history, West Chester remains one of only two unbeaten teams in the NCAA Atlantic Region and 10 nationwide in all of Division II.

“I am really disappointed in our effort, but just really happy that Penecale hit that shot because if we lost this game it would be one we’d be looking back at the end of the season and wishing we had won it,” said WCU head coach Damien Blair.

Now 7-0 in the PSAC East (11-0 overall), the Rams nearly led wireto-wire, but the Marauders (2-5, 4-9) put on a late push to tie it at 73-73 with 23.7 seconds left in regulation. With the shot clock turned off, Penecale unhurriedly dribble up the court, pivoted in the lane and connected on a 10foot fade-away with 2.2 seconds remaining.

“It’s a shot I work on a lot,” Pen-

ecale said.

“When we recruited Matt, I thought he was a big shot guy,” Blair added. “When the game is on the line, he makes big shots – he’s just that type of kid.”

Amazingly, it was Penecale’s only made field goal of the entire contest. He missed his first seven from the floor until the gamewinning heroics. Millersville’s half court heave at the buzzer was off target.

“I knew I was going to shoot it, for sure,” Penecale said. “I got a shot I was comfortable with and I didn’t even realize I hadn’t made a shot up to that point.”

Wearing a mask to protect a broken nose, another junior, Jackson Hyland, paced WCU with 23 points, while Tyrell Long and Frank Rokins chipped in 14 and 11 points, respectively.

“We’ve been talking about slippage for about a week and a half now,” Blair said. “I just hope we are not smelling ourselves because the thing that got us here is that we’ve defended, we’ve played hard, shared the ball and we’ve rebounded, and (tonight we did none of that.

“I think our players are disappointed and know they can play a lot better that they played.”

Wednesday’s struggles illustrate just how difficult it is to go on the road in the PSAC, regardless of the opponent. The Rams led for the vast majority of the way but the Marauders hung around to make it quite interesting.

“Every single team in our league has very good athletes, and on any given night if your opponent plays well, you can lose,” Blair warned. “The team’s that are successful are the ones that play together and follow the game plan. We didn’t do that, but we were still good enough to win.”

Long capped an 8-0 run with a double-clutch reverse, and then moments later Hyland had a baseline one-handed dunk in traffic, was fouled and made the free throw, to make it 5848 with just over eight minutes on the clock. But Millersville simply wouldn’t go away.

“I knew I was going to shoot it, for sure,” Penecale said. “I got a shot I was comfortable with and I didn’t even realize I hadn’t made a shot up to that point.”

“Winning a game like this shows we are resilient,” Penecale said.

“We are definitely not happy with the way we played. We realize we are undefeated, but we also realize that we are nowhere near where we want to be. To be able to learn that lesson without having to take a loss is always a good thing.”

Freshman Eric-Evan Longino (and his 11.7 point per game average) did not play due to the coach’s decision, but fellow rookie Terrance Moore came in and gave WCU some solid minutes down the stretch. He finished with five points and four rebounds in 10 minutes, all in the second half.

“He came in and gave us good minutes and a lot of energy, and that’s something we’ve been lacking off the bench,” Blair said.

Despite a sloppy opening half, the Rams led 36-29 at the intermission. The big difference in the half came when Hyland went off, scoring eight straight points in a 45-second span, to put WCU in front 24-11 at the midway point. But much like in the second half, the Rams were unable to extend the lead.

“Being unbeaten after 11 games if great, but it doesn’t mean much if we don’t win anything in a couple months from now,” Penecale acknowledged. “We appreciate what we’ve done, but we have a long way to go and a lot to work on.”

Spurs: Patty Mills led the Spurs with 26 points and LaMarcus Aldridge had 24 points and 14 rebounds.

76ers: Soccer star Carli Lloyd rang the ceremonial Liberty Bell to start the game . ... Simmons had 26 points and Redick scored 20.

Fultz update

Markelle Fultz, the No. pick of the 2017 draft, appears close to playing again after missing two months with right shoulder soreness. Fultz has played in only four games this season, all as a reserve. He participated in both 4-on-4 half-court drills and light 1-on-1 work this week at practice. Fultz struggled with his mechanics when he did play, and his shooting form was widely mocked around the NBA.

Brown said he had not determined how Fultz would be worked into the rotation when he did return.

“I’m excited because he completely connects the dots to what we don’t have,” Brown said. “Anybody that can create their own shot, anybody that can create something for somebody else is of extreme value to the collection of what we do. That is his skillset.”

Good Friends

Brown was all smiles when he caught up with Popovich. Brown joined the Spurs as a member of their basketball operations department in 1998-99 and was a member of the Spurs organization for all four of their championship seasons (1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007).

Brown had been 0-8 vs. Popovich.

Popovich said Brown was the right coach for the job and to handle the painful, ongoing rebuild in Philadelphia

“It’s the fortitude, the patience that he’s exhibited in such a consistent manner in tough circumstances for several years,” Popovich said. “I don’t know of a coach that I’ve ever run into that could handle that adversity and stay so positive and continue to teach.”

Brown has a 93-272 career record in four-plus seasons with the Sixers.