WCU blows golden opportunity
Amy Festa
Issue date: 2/8/10 Section: Sports
After losing two conference games on the road last week, the West Chester men's basketball team was relying on the energy from their home crowd in their game Wednesday against Shippensburg to pull them out of their slump.
West Chester had lost three of their last four games before their meeting with Shippensburg, who had the worst record in the PSAC East.
West Chester ultimately lost to Shippensburg in a heartbreaking 63-61 game. The first half was neck and neck as Shippensburg could only bring the lead to five points. Towards the end of the first half West Chester was commanding the floor and went into halftime leading 27-24.
The Rams had the momentum going into the second half and continued to extend their lead. West Chester came out firing as Ralph Hegamin made a jump shot to begin the second half that sparked West Chester's offensive success in the second half. Kenny St. George added a three-pointer and Kehinde Roberts contributed to West Chester's lead.
They held Shippensburg off as they worked towards, what looked like, as a definite tally in the win column. With ten minutes left in the game, West Chester had a nine-point lead over Shippensburg.
Shippensburg began to carve into West Chester's lead and slowly began reducing the Golden Rams lead. West Chester saw their lead dwindle and their efforts weren't enough to hold off the Raiders. With only 1:18 left in the game, Shippensburg's Jordan Stasyszyn drained a three-pointer that gave the Raiders a one-point lead; their first lead of the second half.
West Chester had opportunities to regain the lead from Shippensburg, but a missed layup by Elie Daniel followed by a missed jumper by Kenny St. George gave Shippensburg the leverage they needed to secure the win.
With seven seconds left in the game, Shippensburg's Will Royal had two free throws to make to force West Chester to make a three-pointer to send the game into overtime. After Royal made the first and missed the second, West Chester had a few seconds to get up the court and take a shot.
West Chester had lost three of their last four games before their meeting with Shippensburg, who had the worst record in the PSAC East.
West Chester ultimately lost to Shippensburg in a heartbreaking 63-61 game. The first half was neck and neck as Shippensburg could only bring the lead to five points. Towards the end of the first half West Chester was commanding the floor and went into halftime leading 27-24.
The Rams had the momentum going into the second half and continued to extend their lead. West Chester came out firing as Ralph Hegamin made a jump shot to begin the second half that sparked West Chester's offensive success in the second half. Kenny St. George added a three-pointer and Kehinde Roberts contributed to West Chester's lead.
They held Shippensburg off as they worked towards, what looked like, as a definite tally in the win column. With ten minutes left in the game, West Chester had a nine-point lead over Shippensburg.
Shippensburg began to carve into West Chester's lead and slowly began reducing the Golden Rams lead. West Chester saw their lead dwindle and their efforts weren't enough to hold off the Raiders. With only 1:18 left in the game, Shippensburg's Jordan Stasyszyn drained a three-pointer that gave the Raiders a one-point lead; their first lead of the second half.
West Chester had opportunities to regain the lead from Shippensburg, but a missed layup by Elie Daniel followed by a missed jumper by Kenny St. George gave Shippensburg the leverage they needed to secure the win.
With seven seconds left in the game, Shippensburg's Will Royal had two free throws to make to force West Chester to make a three-pointer to send the game into overtime. After Royal made the first and missed the second, West Chester had a few seconds to get up the court and take a shot.
Be the first to comment on this story