Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
BRACKET RACKET
WCU wins NCAA tourney game for first time in history
West Chester University men’s basketball head coach Damien Blair, center, is all business as the players on his bench celebrate during Saturday’s win over Wheeling Jesuit University in the first round of the NCAA Division II Tournament at Virginia State University. WCU won the game, 82-77, for its first NCAA Division II Tournament win in school history. The Daily Local News’ Neil Geoghegan was there for the win, and will be on hand today as WCU faces familiar foe East Stroudsburg for a spot in the Sweet 16.
A little over a week ago, Tyrell Long was praying that his team would get a chance to play together just one more time in the NCAA Tournament. His prayers were ultimately answered, and on Saturday the West Chester men earned yet another game together — while entering the record books in the process.
The Golden Rams staged a come-from-behind 82-77 victory over Wheeling (W.V.) Jesuit in round one of the NCAA Atlantic Regionals at Virginia State’s Multipurpose Center to advance to Sunday’s semifinal. It marked the first ever Division II Tournament victory for WCU following nine early exits.
“Coach (Damien Blair) has been talking since August that we want to make history this season,” said Long, who is a senior and knows that the next loss will be the last outing of his college career.
“Coach (Damien Blair) has been talking since August that we want to make history this season.” – West Chester’s Tyrell Long
“To be honest I’ve been thinking a lot about it, but I don’t know if it’s necessarily fair to put that type of burden on our players,” added Blair, who is now 1-3 in the NCAAs as the head coach at his alma mater.
“I am just extremely proud of the guys for figuring out a way to win against a good team.”
Now 22-6 overall, the sixth-seeded Rams will face a familiar division foe on Sunday (tipoff 5 p.m.) for the right to play in the regional final on Tuesday. Second-seeded East Stroudsburg topped PSAC foe Gannon in another regional quarterfinal to set up a pivotal rubber match. West Chester and the Warriors (25-5) split two regular season meetings this winter.
“It’s less to prepare for,” Blair acknowledged. “We know what ESU is going to do.”
“We are looking forward to playing another team in our league and a team we’ve beaten before. Our kids have a lot of confidence they can do it again, and if they do, then we are on to the regional championship.”
Saturday’s milestone victory was an accomplishment that Blair — the program’s No. 2 all-time scorer — was unable to do as a player back in the 1990s for his predecessor Dick DeLaney. Afterwards, the Rams were happy but already starting to focus on East Stroudsburg.
“I asked our players in the locker room, ‘How long do you need (to celebrate)?’” Blair said. “They said, ‘Coach, we are done and ready to go.”
Trailing by double digits in both halves, the Rams got back into contention with a 21-3 rally midway through the second half, and then won it with a series of big plays down the stretch. None was bigger, however, than a clutch 3-pointer by junior guard Matt Penecale that put WCU ahead 80-75 with 16.6 seconds remaining.
Perhaps one of the biggest shots in program history, Penecale barely beat the shot clock and banked it in. It was so close, the officials had to refer to the television replay to determine he had, indeed, beat the buzzer.
“The banks are still open on Saturday,” Blair joked later.
“I thought it was good and I didn’t have a doubt. I’m just glad he banked it in. Throughout the course of this season, we’ve had some crazy things like that happen against us, so it’s funny how the basketball gods can sometimes help out when you need it.”
Penecale also helped close it out by knocking down 4 of 4 from the free throw line in the final 1:29, including a pair of pressurepacked efforts with 11.2 seconds left. In all, West Chester outscored the thirdseeded Cardinals 10-6 to end the game. Wheeling Jesuit, the Mountain East Conference champs, finish the season at 26-6.
“It feels great playing with this team. I’ve never been with a group this close and tight knit,” said WCU junior forward Jackson Hyland, who scored 16 of his teamhigh 20 in the second half.
“You have to play really well when your best is needed,” Blair added. “It’s about doing the little things that will put you in a position to win. We had guys on the floor getting loose balls and we came up with some big rebounds.”
Penecale had a 3-point play, while Long and reserve guard Steve Smith each connected from 3-point range to spark the 21-3 run that gave West Chester a chance. The Rams also got a difference making 3-pointer by Frank Rokins with five minutes remaining, just moments before he fouled out. And then unsung sophomore center, Frank Toro, converted a 3-point play with 3:26 on the clock to set the stage for the finish.
“(West Chester) played very hard, they are a physical team and battled us for 40 minutes,” said Wheeling Jesuit head coach Danny Sancomb. “But we had a lot of self-inflicted wounds. We missed 17 foul shots, and that’s hard to do if you are playing a competitive team.”
The Rams had the edge on the boards, shot it better and got some important contributions off the bench. But the Cardinals wound up with nearly twice as many made free throws (30) as WCU attempted (16).
“When you look at that stat line without seeing the score, you would think that (Wheeling Jesuit) won the game,” Blair said.
“We just had to just stay together and not sorry about it,” added Long, who finished with 11 points, six rebounds and six assists. “We had to just keep finding a way.
“We’ve played a lot of tough games so that prepared us for this. Playing in the (PSAC) East is one of the hardest divisions in the country.”
Penecale scored seven of his 13 in the final two minutes, and Toro added 10 points and five boards in just 16 minutes of action. In addition, backup post players Terrence Moore and Mike Jenkins combined to score 11 points and grab 10 rebounds.
“When our bigs play well, we are tough to beat,” Blair said. “And Tim Toro played huge. He had three or four unbelievable moves to the basket, knocked down a few huge free throws and was really good on the defensive end.”
West Chester was ice cold from the field in the early going and fell behind by as much as 11 in the first half. But the Rams fought back to pull within five at the intermission thanks largely to an edge on the boards.
“I was a little frustrated early in the game because we didn’t play with the confidence we talked about all week,” Blair said.
“This is the second time we’ve been here (in the NCAAs) in three years, and it’s more about their journey, not necessarily what’s happened in the past. I think they learned a lot from that first experience (in 2016) and I thought we got some of those jitters out of our system in the early minutes.”
Long added: “We had a slow start but I always come back to something coach (Blair) says, ‘stop feeling sorry for yourself and keep playing through.’”