Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
WCU’s dream ends in loss to ESU
PSAC rival Warriors storm past Golden Rams in second half to reach Sweet 16
ETTRICK, VA. » A history-making postseason basketball run rapidly came to a halt on Sunday for the West Chester University men.
A lapse at the start of the second half proved to be WCU’s undoing, and it led to a 90-76 setback to PSAC East rival East Stroudsburg in NCAA Tournament action.
“In the first half, we followed the game plan to a ‘T,’” said West Chester head coach Damien Blair. “But in the second half, it was like we ran out of gas.
“To play a team like East Stroudsburg on back-to-back days is not an easy task. They pressure for 40 minutes and run guys at you in waves. I thought they wore us down. We weren’t as mentally tough as we needed to be.”
Just a day after the Golden Rams notched the program’s first-ever Division I tournament triumph, sixthseeded West Chester wilted against the Warriors’ unrelenting pressure defense in the second round of the Atlantic Regional at Virginia State’s Multipurpose Center. The Rams’ season ends with a 22-7 overall mark.
“This group broke that proverbial glass ceiling by winning in the NCAAs, and now it’s time to win a division championship, a conference championship and to make a national run,” said Blair, who has been at the helm for a decade. “That’s what West Chester’s programs do. Baseball, field hockey — you name it — that’s what we are talking about in our coaches’ staff meetings.
“This loss it tough to swallow, but I am happy for these guys and what they’ve done. We don’t have a guy who is one of the best players in the country. It’s a group of guys, and when they perform well, they put us in a great position to be successful.”
The PSAC champion, East Stroudsburg (26-5), advances to Tuesday’s regional final, where it will take on the Virginia StateShippensburg winner for the right to advance to the Elite Eight in Sioux Falls, S.D. The Warriors forced 13 turnovers with their fullcourt press (19 overall) and outscored WCU 30-12 on 3-point buckets.
“The difference in the second half was just more (defensive) intensity, to be honest,” said ESU head coach Jeff Wilson. “We had stretched in the first half where we didn’t score, and if you don’t score, you can’t press. As the game when on, we got more comfortable with (the pressure) because we got more success out of it.”
It was the pivotal third game of the season series after the two sides split a pair of regular season clashes. Seeded second, the Warriors have now won 12 in a row, and 15 of the last 16 dating back to West Chester’s two-point victory in mid-January at Hollinger Field House.
“I didn’t want this to be my last game,” said all-conference senior Tyrell Long. “I wanted it to be at the end of March. But I can appreciate that we were the first team to get over that hump.”
It was the first NCAA Tourney meeting between the two division rivals. And even though WCU looked poised to advance to the Sweet 16 following a solid opening half, the Rams lost their aggressiveness and made some questionable decisions immediately after the break.
“I thought our strength was our chemistry and depth, and that’s also East Stroudsburg’s strength,” Blair explained. “And (ESU’s) style of play fights a back-to-back situation better than our style.”
West Chester led most of the first half, but it evaporated quickly when ESU scored the first eight points of the second half. Blair called a timeout less than two minutes in, but it wasn’t enough to turn it around.
In all, the Rams went more than five minutes into the half without hitting from the field, and yet only trailed 54-51. The Warriors, however, staged another 8-0 run, and West Chester never really recovered.
“We didn’t keep the energy up in the second half,” Long acknowledged. “It was a lack of mental focus. We made some mistakes, got down on ourselves instead of looking to the next play and keep fighting.”
With clear marching orders to attack ESU’s fullcourt pressure, the Rams staged a 15-4 run and eventually opened a ninepoint edge with just over three minutes remaining in the first half. West Chester turned it over on three straight possessions soon thereafter, but still managed to take a 46-41 lead into the halftime break.
“I didn’t think (ESU) particularly wanted to be here in the first half, and if we could have made a couple more 3-pointers and could have extended that lead, it could have been a difference in the game,” Blair said.
“But we were unable to keep our foot on the gas pedal. We allowed them to get the early lead and that gave them the confidence they needed.”
Former Kennett star Jackson Hyland had 14 points and 15 points for the Rams, and fellow junior Frank Rokins led the way with 16 points. Point guard Matt Penecale scored all 13 of his points in the first half, and sophomore center Tim Toro added nine, but they all came in the early going.
“This group didn’t get as much credit as they deserve,” Blair pointed out. “They’ve won a lot of big games in one of the toughest conferences in the country. And that was without close to 31 points that we lost from two guards (Malik Jackson and Zach Bare), that didn’t not return.
“I am extremely proud of these guys for winning our first NCAA game. But the guys in the locker room know that it’s not enough. We have higher expectations.”