The West Chester women’s basketball team recorded its third consecutive win on Saturday, defeating PSAC foe East Stroudsburg 64-52, in front of a lively crowd at Hollinger Field House.
Freshman guard Dallas Ely, despite not being part of the starting lineup, led the Lady Rams with a season-high 20 points off the bench. Senior forward Alex Lennon added 13 points of her own along with seven rebounds and six blocks to lead West Chester, which has now won four of its last five games.
West Chester jumped out to a huge lead during the first half, leading by as much as 17 points. But ESU managed to cut its deficit to only five points early in the second half. The Rams swiftly responded with a run of their own, though, stretching the lead quickly back to 13 by the halfway point of the second half.
Ely was key during that second-half run, going 5-for-6 from three-point range over the course of the game while also making five of six attempts from the free throw line.
Despite scoring a solid 64 points, Ely and Lennon were West Chester’s only two players to score in double figures. Other Rams starters like Jasmen Clark and Brittany Sicinski, who finished with eight and seven points respectively, padded their team’s total to keep them comfortably ahead of East Stroudsburg for large stretches of the game.
East Stroudsburg was led by Jessica Martin, who shot 8-for-15 and scored 18 points. Andrea Veres added another 11 points.
The victory was the latest in a recent run of strong performances by the Lady Rams, who have rebounded from a somewhat rocky stretch towards the end of winter break. The team had lost three of four games, all in the PSAC, before starting its current three-game winning streak by defeating Bloomsburg in an away game on Jan. 26. They followed that victory by winning again, this time at home against Cheyney this past Wednesday. That game saw Lennon post a double-double with 17 points and 15 rebounds. In fact, she came within three blocks of a triple-double. Lennon is second all-time in blocked shots in WCU history.
This three-game winning streak leaves West Chester with a 12-7 record, 9-6 in the PSAC, with seven games remaining in the regular season. That is good enough for a tie for fourth in the PSAC East division with Kutztown. Ahead of WCU are Bloomsburg, Shippensburg, and Millersville. The Lady Rams still have games against all three of those teams left on their schedule. They will want to keep up this current level of play if they want to secure a spot in the PSAC Tournament and, more importantly, the NCAA Division II Tournament.
This week, West Chester hits the road to first take on Mansfield on Wednesday night, and then rivals Millersville in a Saturday afternoon matchup.
Joey Samuel is a fourth-year student majoring in political science and Spanish. He can be reached at JS719745@wcupa.edu.