Back home, West Chester extends win streak to 5

WEST CHESTER » The preseason favorite to win the PSAC East basketball crown, West Chester is starting to look like a legitimate contender.

Playing at Hollinger Field House for the first time in over a month, the WCU men throttled visiting Bloomsburg 86-63 to extend its winning streak to five, and keep pace with Shippensburg and East Stroudsburg in the upper echelon of the division standings.

“We always knew it was there, it’s just been a matter of getting there every single day of practice and putting it on the floor,” said senior Jackson Hyland. “We certainly feel as a group that we are starting to turn the corner, but we aren’t there yet.”

Now 7-2 in the division (11-5 overall), the Rams are a full game behind first-place Shippensburg and pulls within a half game of idle ESU. Bloomsburg drops to

2-6, 5-8.

“I love this team,” said head coach Damien Blair. “One of the reasons is that I’ve had most of them for three or four years. They understand exactly what I want from them.

“Right now we are just trying to figure out a way to get better so we can make a run when we need to.”

Despite the preseason accolades, WCU managed to

win just six of its first 11. But the Rams haven’t lost since mid-December, and the 2018-19 squad is well positioned to make a run at the PSAC East title. Now in his 10th season at the helm, Blair has led the Golden Rams to the conference final in three of the past five seasons, but WCU has yet to win a divisional crown.

“With (senior point guard Matt) Penecale going down with an injury in the first half of our first game, we were scrambling to try to figure out who we were and how we were going to win games,” Blair pointed out. “It definitely had a huge impact

on our start.”

But Penecale is back, and so is backcourt mate Malik Jackson, who sat out all of last season. Add returning starters like Hyland and Frank Rokins to the mix, along with a couple scorers off the bench, and Rams are talented and deep.

“This is a new challenge,” said Hyland, who starred at Kennett High School. “I do think (opposing) team’s gun for us, but it’s been that way for the four years I’ve been here.”

West Chester from wireto-wire on Saturday, but first took control with a 15-2 rally early in the second half

that featured a 3-point play by freshman Nick Alikakos and a 3-pointer by Jackson (one of four on the day for him). It quickly turned a 4536 battle into a 60-38 blowout.

“If you look at some of our wins, we’ve had runs like that,” Blair said. “That didn’t surprise me. With (Evan-Eric) Longino, Nick (Alikakos) and (Colin) Daly, we sometimes have more scoring off the bench than we do from our starters. Our strength is in our depth.

“But we had some lulls too. We had a 15-2 run but we also had a five minute lull where we didn’t get a

basket. That’s the thing that concerns me.”

Hyland poured in a dozen points in the early going and Jackson went on a spurt late in the first half to help the Rams build a lead. The two combined to score 29 first half as WCU took a 45-34 lead into halftime.

“We wanted to take control early in the second half – we didn’t want it to be close so (Bloomsburg) could stage a comeback,” said Hyland, who led all scorers with 27.

Jackson added 16 points, while Longino and Alikakos came off the bench to score 17 and 11, respectively. Rokins had a tough day shooting the ball but led the way with 13 rebounds.

“We talk about it all the time,” Hyland said. “We have a deep roster and we believe in every single guy on our roster. If somebody’s not playing well, no matter who it is, it’s next guy up.”