West Chester's Rally Falls Short Against No. 3 Edinboro, 69-65

The following is a press release from the West Chester University Athletic Department.

Alexandra Lennon (Shipley) scored 19 points, but No. 3 Edinboro scored the first 16 points of the game and never trailed en route to a 69-65 victory in the first round of the NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Tournament in Atlantic Regional play inside McComb Fieldhouse Friday evening.
 
Edinboro advances to the semifinals of the Atlantic Regional and will play the Bloomsburg/Indiana (Pa.) winner Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. Gannon will take on Shaw at 5 p.m. in the other semifinal.
 
A desperate comeback bid to open the second half brought West Chester to within three (44-41) with 10 minutes remaining. The Golden Rams opened the final 20 minutes of play on a 21-10 run to crawl back into the contest. West Chester trailed, 51-48, with 7:46 left when Edinboro put the Rams away by scoring the next seven points of the contest and pushing the lead back to double digits with 5:51 remaining.
 
“I think we have a calm confidence,” Edinboro head coach Stan Swank said about West Chester’s desperate comeback. “We done it before this year. We played pretty strong in the first half. We only allowed three baskets. That’s pretty good for a college basketball game.”
 
Ambreelinne Ortman connected on a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to a bucket (60-58) with just under three minutes to play. But, that was as close as the visitors would get.
 
Edinboro (29-1) scored the first 16 points of the game and never looked back in defeating West Chester (21-8) for the third time this season and second time in as many weeks.
 
A free throw by Tiffany Johnson put the Rams on the board at 14:43. However, Edinboro’s lead hovered around 18 points for nearly the rest of the half. Shamyra Hammond hit a driving layup with 5:01 left in the first half that was West Chester’s first basket of the contest and made the score 25-11 in the Fighting Scots’ favor. The Rams’ first nine points of the game all came on free throws.
 
“I thought we were going to make ESPN’s (not) Top 10,” WCU head coach Deirdre Kane commented afterwards. “But, that’s the kind of kids that we get to come to dub-C. They are blue-collar kids.
 
“The second team just kept inching away and inching away.”
 
“Edinboro’s guards are very active,” Lennon pointed out. “Once we started getting the ball inside, we were able to do different things.”
 
West Chester cut the deficit to 14 (34-20) by halftime. But, the Rams shot just 13 percent (3-for-23) from the field and was outrebounded 30-17 while turning the ball over 13 times. The second half proved to be a completely different ballgame as the Golden Rams outscored the Scots by 10 (45-35).
 
Ortman finished with 12 points and matched her career-high with 10 points in the tilt.
 
Third-seeded Gannon defeated sixth-seed Johnson C. Smith, 61-50, and second-seed Shaw downed seventh-seeded West Virginia Wesleyan, 92-78, in other Atlantic Regional action at McComb Fieldhouse Friday.
 
GAME NOTES: West Chester is now 1-4 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and 0-2 vs. Edinboro … the Golden Rams are now 5-13 all-time against ‘Boro as well … West Chester’s 21 victories are the most in a single season since the 2002-03 campaign (23) … Allison Hostetter finishes her career eighth on the school’s all-time scoring chart (1,199) … Hostetter is also sixth all-time at West Chester in career rebounds (729) … however, she is the school’s all-time rebounding leader among guards … Jr., F Alexandra Lennon becomes just the second player in school history to reach 200 career blocked shots (203) … Lennon’s six blocked shots ties her season high against Philadelphia University in the season opener … she is just nine blocks shy of the school’s all-time mark of 212 held by Gina Tophoney … Jillian Keefer, Shamyra Hammond and Allison Hostetter were West Chester’s senior class … they finish their four-year career with a record of 80-34 … the most wins by a senior class since the Class of 2004 won 82 games.