WEST CHESTER, PA (February 17, 2010) – The Kutztown University men's basketball team never found its shooting touch after a quick start and dropped a 75-68 decision to West Chester in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division contest Wednesday night at Hollinger Fieldhouse. (BOXSCORE)
Kutztown fell into a three-way tie for second place with Mansfield and East Stroudsburg. With three games remaining, all three teams are 7-4 in the PSAC East. The Golden Bears (20-4 overall, 7-4 PSAC East) made 38.9 percent of their shots after intermission to fall a game behind Cheyney, who beat Millersville, 88-74.
The Wolves (15-9, 8-3) visit ESU Saturday and host Kutztown next Wednesday. So Kutztown can still earn a piece of the PSAC East regular season title.
“I give credit to West Chester,” Kutztown coach Bernie Driscoll said. “They did a nice job and I thought their whole team played well. I thought our kids gave a great effort but we just weren't able to get over the hump tonight.”
Hopefully two days off will recharge Kutztown for the final three games of the regular season. Many of Kutztown's shots were short. The Golden Bears also struggled from the foul line for the second straight game, missing the front ends of all five one-and-one opportunities.
Kutztown was led in scoring by senior guard and Division II national player of the year candidate Stephen Dennis (West Chester, PA/Henderson), who finished with 27 points. Dennis, the nation's leading scorer, upped his career point total to 2,247. He also finished with five rebounds and four assists. Also reaching double digits for Kutztown was junior guard Julius Gray (Lincoln University, PA/Oxford Area High School) (15 points) and junior center Ryan Washington (Philadelphia, PA/Wissahickon) (12 points, 14 rebounds).
Ralph Hegamin led West Chester with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Kehinde Roberts finished with 14 points for the balanced Golden Rams, which saw of their players score.
The Golden Rams began the second half with an 11-2 burst to open their largest advantage of the contest, 52-40, with 15:55 remaining. Kutztown was only able to slice WCU's deficit in half as it pulled to 68-63 with 1:09 remaining. Soft layups went halfway down and popped out. Foul shots hit the front of the rim and dropped to the floor. Jump shots trickled off of the back of the rim.
West Chester shot a blistering 50 percent in the first half from the field (15-for-30) and 3-point distance (6-for-12) to grab a 41-38 lead at intermission. Ten of the 11 Golden Ram players who participated in the first half scored. After a quick start in which Kutztown raced to a 13-3 lead seven minutes into the contest, West Chester took control despite Dennis who scored half of KU's points in the opening 20 minutes.
Kutztown returns to action when it visits Shippensburg Saturday afternoon beginning at 3 p.m. Meanwhile, West Chester visits Mansfield also Saturday at 3 p.m.
