In the crazy world of PSAC East basketball, nothing is guaranteed to stay the same for much longer than a day. The WCU Golden Rams’ men’s basketball team found this out the hard way this week as they entered Wednesday night’s 70-58 win over Shippensburg in second place and left Saturday’s 71-57 loss to Millersville in fourth place.On Wednesday night, the Golden Rams traveled to face the Shippensburg University Red Raiders at Heiges Field House. In a game that saw eight different Golden Rams score, it was once again junior center Ralph Hegamin that stole the show. Hegamin scored 19 points on 5-15 shooting from the field and added 14 rebounds. The dominating center, who played 39 of 40 minutes, made the most of his free throw attempts as well, connecting on seven of 11 shots from the charity stripe.
Junior swingman Kehinde Roberts once again had a solid all-around game. Roberts scored 15 points and added six rebounds and a steal on this night.
The Golden Rams set the tone early in the game as they sprinted out to an early 17-7 lead. An Isaiah McGee jumper would extend WCU’s lead to 37-26 at the half. WCU’s bench made a huge difference in the first half as they outscored Shippensburg’s bench by a 17-3 margin. The Golden Rams appeared a little bit lackadaisical on defense in the first half, allowing SU to shoot 45.8 percent from the field. However, WCU locked down the perimeter as they only allowed the Raiders to hit two of nine shots from beyond the arc in the first half.
Shippensburg came out of the locker room hell-bent on making a comeback. They were able to whittle the lead down to 39-35 with a 9-2 surge. However, some clutch made free throws by Hegamin ended up nailing the coffin shut for the Raiders. Junior guard Kenneth St.. George had a nice game with 10 points, four assists, four rebounds and two steals. The win gave WCU sole possession of second place in the PSAC East standings.
Unfortunately, second place would be short-lived for the Golden Rams. On Saturday afternoon, they traveled to Pucillo Gym on the campus of Millersville University to take on a struggling Marauders team that was just 1-6 in PSAC play heading into the game. However, the Golden Rams were unable to overcome their own poor shooting as they fell 71-57 to drop into fourth place in the conference.
The Golden Rams only had two players, St.. George and Roberts, score in double figures and could not overcome a dismal 3-19 shooting performance from beyond the arc. Hegamin struggled with only eight points and six rebounds.
The Marauders had four different players hit the double-digit mark in points, led by Palmer McDurfee’s 21 points. McDurfee also dished out seven assists and grabbed four rebounds while playing the entire game. Millersville’s Zac Bauermaster also had a stellar game, scoring 15 points on five of seven shooting from three-point land.
A Thiel Benn jumper trimmed Millersville’s lead to 32-25 with just over 18 minutes left in the game. That’s as close as the Golden Rams would get as Millersville’s fantastic three-point shooting was too much to overcome. The Marauders shot 57.9 percent from the field (11-19) and also made 18 of 22 free throws to spark the upset. The loss dropped West Chester to 14-7 overall and 5-3 in conference play.
The Golden Rams will have little time to lick their wounds, as they will host cross-town rival Cheyney on Wednesday night. WCU surprised many PSAC observers earlier this year when they walked into Cheyney’s Cope Hall and walked out with a double-digit win.
A win over the Wolves would not only give WCU their first season sweep over their rival since 2005-2006 but could also bump them back into second place in the PSAC. WCU will then travel to PSAC cellar-dweller Bloomsburg on Saturday afternoon with hopes of sweeping the Huskies.
Matt Chandik is a fourth-year student majoring in Spanish with a minor in Journalism. He can be reached at MC618553@wcupa.edu.