WCU breaks out in big way, routs Cheyney

WEST CHESTER >> It got to a point — with shots falling from every level and angle — that you wouldn’t fault head coach Damien Blair for hoping his West Chester basketball squad would save some of the offensive fireworks for next week’s looming PSAC East championship showdown.

That’s not to suggest that Blair wasn’t happy to see his Golden Rams break out of a recent shooting slump onWednesday en route to a rare lopsided win in the latest renewal of the cross-county rivalry with Cheyney. Ranked 21st nationally, West Chester delivered an early onslaught that stunned theWolves and set the stage for a 102-71 wipeout in the final regular season game atHollingerField House.

“The way I am looking at it is that we’ve probably had five or six games where we didn’t shoot the ball well, so maybe we are due for five or six where we do,” Blair said. “And if you look at the numbers, it wasn’t unbelievable. We’ve been better.

“I just think we played hard, got some easy looks and finished them.”

In more than 90 meetings in the all-time series, it was the most points and widest margin of victory for West Chester against Cheyney.

“The key was focusing and keeping the intensity up. I think we did that,” said sophomore

Tyrell Long.

“There are not many rivalries across the country where you get an opportunity to win by 30-plus points,” Blair added. “So I am really surprised by the outcome.”

The victory was WCU’s fourth in the last five and helps the Rams keep pace atop the division standings (16-4) along with idle Kutztown. West Chester (20-4 overall) is at Millersville on Saturday and will close out the regular season campaign in Kutztown, which could be a winner-take-all scenario.

“It’s tough not to look a little bit down the road, but wewant towin the division,” Blair pointed out. “Then we want to win the conference and then go to the national tournament.

“Right now it’s important that we put ourselves in the best position possible to win the East, so winning on Saturday would assure us one of the top two seeds, a firstround bye and a home game. Then on Wednesday, can we accomplish one of our goals.”

Playing in its second game in two days (due to Monday’s inclement weather), Cheyney has now dropped 14 in a row and falls to 1-18, 2-20 overall. The Rams, who are ranked fourth in the latest NCAA Atlantic Region poll, have now beaten the Wolves six consecutive times dating back to 2013.

“We played the top two teams in our league who are fighting for first place, one of Tuesday and one on Wednesday,” CU head coach Dominique Stephens said. “It just takes a toll.

“Playing back-to-back sometimes it takes a while just for you get back into it. That happened to us in the first half. We just didn’t have legs or energy. We finally got our wind in the second half.”

The second meeting of the season between WCU and CU was starkly different from the first, where the upset-mindedWolves pushed theRams to thebrinkbefore succumbing, 84-82. West Chester knocked down four of its first five from beyond the arc on Wednesday and never looked back.

“When we played them (at Cheyney), I don’t think we gave themthe respect theydeserved,” Blair acknowledged.

TheRams’ scorching start seemed to catch Cheyney by surprise. Stephens called a timeout two minutes in and CU was down by 10 in the opening five minutes as WCU buried six of its first seven shots.

A12-0runbytheRams late in the first half made it 46-18 at the break, and even though Cheyney was more competitive, theynever got closer than 28 the rest of theway.

“Everybody seemed to be hitting shots today,” Long said. “That always makes things easier.

“The coaches keep telling us to keep our heads down and when we look up at the end of it, hopefullywe are in a good position.”

Long shared the scoring honors with teammate AveryBrownwith a career-high 20 points, and added nine rebounds. The 6-foot-4 guard from Philadelphia has now scored 36 points in his last three outings.

“I tried to be more relentless. Iwanted to get that 10th rebound so I could get a double-double,” Long said.

“Tyrell is still young and trying to figure outwhere he should be,” Blair said. “And if he makes a couple baskets, he can get it going. Early on, hewasat therimall the time, so we like his energy.”

Matt Wiseley and Malik Jackson added 17 and 14 points, respectively, for the Rams. Eugene Lett paced Cheyney with 16 points, and teammates Imir Bailey and Juwan Mullen each chipped in with 11 points.