WCU tops Cheyney to clinch top seed

WEST CHESTER >> The surging Cheyney women handed firstplaced Shippensburg a devastating setback four days earlier, and it looked like historymight be repeated Wednesday at Hollinger Field House against league-leading West Chester.

Clinging to a one-point lead in the fourth quarter, the Golden Rams avoided the upset with a strong finishing kick to outlast the red-hot Wolves, 57-47. With the win, WCU secured at least a share of the PSAC Eastern Division title and a top seed in the upcoming conference tournament.

“I am so glad for this game to be over with,” said WCU head coach Kiera Wooden. “Cheyney came in playing extremely well, hard and scrappy, so I was nervous about this one.”

Now winners of 11 straight — the longest streak since the 2002-

03 season — the Rams improve to 16-4 in the conference, 19-5 overall. West Chester is currently second in the latest NCAA Atlantic Region rankings.

“I am not upset about our effort but the execution and smart-decision making wasn’t always there,” Wooden said. “We are happy with where we are right now, but not content.”

With a recent infusion of confidence, the Wolves are playing as well as anybody in the division, but the Rams won it with an 18-11 advantage in the fourth quarter. Cheyney falls to 2-18 (3-20 overall) and its two-game winning streak is over.

“There is progression in our basketball program,” said CU head coach Kyle Adams. “When we’ve come here before, it hasn’t looked like this. We were in this game in the fourth quarter.

“We’ve had some tough nightshere. That’s something they can feel good about. But I also sawa lot of hurt in our locker room. Our kids believed they could win and that’s good to see.”

West Chedster probably would have been in big trouble without getting a monster game from senior forward Anna Kuntz. That’s because established stars Dallas Ely and Brittany Sicinski— two of themostprolificscorersinprogram history — each had an off-night. Theduowent a combined 4-for-23 fromthe field.

“We needed every one of Anna’s points and rebounds, especially when we were struggling offensively, she was crashing those offensive boards and giving us second chance opportunities,” Wooden said. “She played real big.”

Kuntz matched career high in both points (22) and rebounds (15), and added a couple steals.

“We did seema littlemore flat that usual,” Kuntz said. “I knew we needed a spark so I was glad to help out the team.”

In front 41-40 with more than seven minutes to play, WCU staged a 12-2 rally to provide a little breathing room. Tori Smick came offthe bench to hit a big 3-pointer andKuntzaddedsevenpoints during the run. The Wolves never got closer than nine the rest of the way.

“I liked (Smick’s) energy from the bench when I thought we were flat. So I’m happy we went to her,” Wooden said.

The Rams led by as many as a dozen late in the first quarter, but theWolves fought back towithinfive, at thehalf, and then tied it briefly midway through the third.

Cheyney’s Kyra Hines-Allen led all scorers with 24 points on 12 of 18 shooting, but nobody else had more than seven. Due to poor weather on Monday, the Wolves hosted Kutztown just 24 hours earlier.

“Weplayed(Tuesday) night and had all of the ladies take ice baths and stretch really good,” Adams added. “That helped some, but the way West Chester plays it wears on you.

“So even though we had some energy early, we were kind of running out of gas later in the game.”

Not much changed in the two-way race to become the program’s career scoring leader. With four points, Ely has 1,534, which is 22 behind Kiesha Mack’s school record 1,556. Sicinski had eight on Wednesday and is 26 back.

The win was the 17th straight for WCU in the series with Cheyney.

“Since all five of our starters are seniors, we are living every game like it’s our last,” Kuntz said.