Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
WCU ready for double trip to Va.
Women to play Glenville State Friday, men face Wheeling Jesuit Saturday
WEST CHESTER » The men’s and women’s basketball teams at West Chester sweated it out late Sunday evening before ultimately celebrating invitations into the upcoming NCAA Division II Tournament. Both received at-large bids, both will be playing champions from the Mountain East Conference and both are traveling to central Virginia to face opponents from West Virginia.
But perhaps most important of all, the two squads are trying to do something that WCU teams have historically struggled mightily to do: win in the NCAAs. The two programs are a combined 1-15 all-time in the tourney.
“Our focus is: ‘don’t just be excited to be here,’” said women’s head coach Kiera Wooden. “Now that we are here, let’s actually advance.
“Not to sound cocky, but we are tired of just making the NCAA Tournament. Getting there is fine and dandy, but we are tired of losing in the first round. It’s been way too long since we actually won one.”
The women are 1-6 while participating in March Madness, and the lone win came 15 years ago. The men have been to the NCAAs nine times and are still looking for victory number one.
“We have to play our best when our best is needed,” explained men’s head coach Damien Blair. “We just haven’t done that. There are three teams in this regional that we’ve beaten already (East Stroudsburg, Shippensburg and Gannon) but you have to beat those teams when it really counts. This really counts.
“The kids have confidence they can make a run, it’s just a matter of playing well when you have to. If we do that, when it’s all said and won, we will be able to get a ‘W.’”
The seventh seed in the Atlantic Region, the WCU women will play at 2:30 p.m. on Friday at Virginia Union and will face a familiar foe in No. 2 Glenville (W.V.) State. Back in mid-November in the second outing of the season, the Rams secured a 97-84 victory, which marked Glenville State’s last – and only -- loss of the season.
“We know they are hot and haven’t lost since November,” Wooden said. “But at the same time we are confident because we are the one team that’s beaten them. They aren’t the same team and neither are we, but it’s a good matchup for us.”
Seeded sixth, Blair’s team will face No. 3 Wheeling (W.V.) Jesuit on Saturday at noon on the campus of Virginia State. The winner will play the East Stroudsburg-Gannon winner on Sunday in the Atlantic Regional semifinals.
“At the beginning of the season, we talked about trying to win a division title, a conference title and a regional title,” Blair said. “So this has been on our mind since the beginning of the season.
“If you are mentally and physically tough, you have a great chance to win. We’ve gone through a bunch of really tough games. But the games we lost to those teams were when we weren’t tough.”
West Chester (21-6 overall) is facing an opponent that is 26-5 overall and has won its last nine contests.
“Wheeling Jesuit is a really good team,” Blair said. “They are big and strong up front. They had an injury to one of their wings, but a freshman guard (Brent Pegram) stepped up and he’s averaging 25 points in the last two games.”
The regular season PSAC East women’s champion, WCU (23-5) had its program-record 18-game winning streak snapped in the semifinals of the PSAC Tournament last weekend. The Rams fell to Edinboro, 106-78.
“We didn’t play the way we are capable of playing, and we definitely didn’t want that to be our last game after such a memorable regular season,” Wooden said.
Now 30-1 overall, Glenville State’s won 29 in a row. When the matchup was announced, Wooden immediately harkened back to the Nov. 12th meeting that took place at Widener’s Schwartz Center due to ongoing renovations at Hollinger Field House.
“It’s ironic,” she said. “After that game, as a shook hands with (Glenville State head coach Kim Stephens) and we said, ‘see you in March.’ We were thinking that we were both good enough to make it to the NCAA Tournament, but we obviously didn’t know we would be playing each other in the first round.
“We have to defend the 3-point line because they shoot so many, and we have to rebound because 3’s equal long rebounds. And we have to take care of the ball because (Glenville State is) at their best when they are turning people over.”
The WCU men’s and women’s teams did not travel together to Virginia even though the two are playing at sites just a half hour apart.
“But we have plans to make it to (the women’s) game and cheer them on,” Blair said.