Bob Heller's Philly WBB Small College Report: The D-2 Edition

by Bob Heller (@Bob_Heller1)

 

 

The area’s top three Division II women’s basketball programs continued their winning ways last week as we kick off this week’s report with the two giants within the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC), University of the Sciences and Jefferson University.

 

USciences and Jefferson are 20 game winners…Face each other this week

USciences and Jefferson have already clinched playoff spots for the upcoming CACC Tournament, hosted by Jefferson this year.  The two teams have identical 21-2 overall record and 13-1 conference marks.  Both squads extended their winning streaks with perfect marks last week.

 

The Devils of USciences currently hold the longest winning streak amongst Division II schools in the east region with 14 straight wins after blowout wins Wilmington University (81-47) and Concordia College (81-56).  

 

In the Wilmington game, the Devils broke the CACC single game record for three point field goals with 21, shattering their old mark of 17set earlier this year. 

 Nine different Devils made at least one three-pointer with Jordan Vitelli and Jess Huber knocking down five apiece.  Sarah Abbonizio led the Devils with 16points with Huber and Vitelli adding 15 apiece.  Alex Thomas joined the trio in double figures with 12 points.

 

In the Concordia game, 12 different Devils scored at least one point with Thomas leading the way with 15 points.  Abbonizio and Vitelli contributed 12 points apiece.  Sciences produced a 26-5 first quarter advantage and led by as many as 36 en route to the win.

 

Jefferson University (formerly Philadelphia University) barely got by Felician College on Saturday, 63-62 to earn their ninth straight win following their overtime loss to USciences. The Rams also recorded easy wins at home against Georgian Court University (86-55) and Washington Adventist (86-63).

 

Alyanna Williams’ jumper with 12 seconds left proved to be the game-winner against the Golden Falcons, who battled the Rams throughout the entire 40 minutes.  Erin Maher and Rachel Day had 14 points apiece with Williams and Jessica Kaminski chipping in 12 points.

 

Caitlyn Cunningham came off the bench to score 24 points while Williams added 22 in the win over Washington Adventist.  The Rams used a 22-9 second quarter to erase an early lead by the Shock as they cruised to victory.

 

Maher had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds against Georgian Court while Beverly Kum led the squad with 16 points Williams and Cunningham had 12 points apiece. 

 

The Rams and the Devils will battle it out for the second time this season on Wednesday at Jefferson’s Gallagher Center. USciences, ranked #2 in the D2SIDA region poll will be seeking a quality road win to go along with their quality home wins over Southern New Hampshire, Jefferson, West Chester University (ranked in Atlantic region poll) and Stonehill (the top team in the East region poll). 

 Jefferson is ranked #4 in the East region poll but has just one victory of note out of conference and that is against East Stroudsburg from the PSAC.  Tipoff at the Gallagher center is 6 p.m.

West Chester wins 12th Straight Game

West Chester meanwhile, extended their winning streak to 12 games with wins over Millersville (82-63) and Kutztown (93-69) last week.  The Golden Rams sit at the top of the PSAC east standings with a 14-3 conference record and a 17-4 overall mark.  Their last loss was to USciences back on December 19.  The Golden Rams are ranked eighth in the week’s D2SIDA Atlantic Region poll.

 

Porscha Speller continued her stellar play last week, scoring 25 and 21 points respectively vs. Millersville and Kutztown while shooting 56% from the field and 57.1% from three-point range.  Her performance last week netted her ECAC Division II Player of the Week honors, marking the second straight week a WCU player has earned the award.

 

Mia Hopkins, last week’s ECAC Player of the week, scored 20 points against Millersville while adding 15 against Kutztown.  Camden Boehner and Katherine Fisher added 13 and 12 points respectively against Millersville.

 Boehner and fisher also had 19 and 15 respectively against Kutztown while Lexi Bruno was the fifth Golden Ram player to reach double figures in the Kutztown game with 12 points.

 

West Chester’s game at Mansfield scheduled for Wednesday, February 7 has been moved to February 8 due to expected inclement weather at Mansfield.

 

Cheyney and Lincoln drop home contests….

The other PSAC school in our area, Cheyney University, has moved up their starting time of their Wednesday game against Bloomsburg from 5:30 pm to 3:30 pm due to pending weather issues.

 

The Wolves lost their only game last week to Millersville, falling at home in overtime 77-72. It was Cheyney’s first home game in 2018. Cheyney falls to 5-16 overall and 3-12 in PSAC games.

 

Takayla Ellis paced the Wolves with 22 points. Her free throw with 2:14 left in the overtime put the Wolves up by one 70-69 but the Marauders scored the next eight points to take control at 77-70.  Octavia Hawkins added a basket with 12 seconds left to round out the scoring.  Hawkins finished with ten points.  Gianni Hill and Yasmine Dorrielan had 13 and 12 points respectively.

 

Meanwhile just down the road, Lincoln University has hit the toughest part of it schedule with three straight conference games against regionally ranked opponents over the last two weeks.  

The Lions latest game was on Saturday against Virginia State University. Lincoln battled with the 19-2 Trojans throughout the contest but their offense struggled with their execution down the stretch a 76-71 loss.  Teira Pendleton led the Lions with 20 points.  Michelle Fitzgerald added 11 points and nine rebounds.

 

Lincoln falls to 13-7 overall and 7-4 in CIAA games with the loss.

 

The Lions notched a non-conference win earlier in the week at Salem University, 57-38. Pendleton and Fitzgerald led Lincoln with 11 and 10 points respectively as every available Lions player got at least 10 minutes of playing time, allowing head Coach Darrell Mosley to give his starters some much needed rest as they head into the stretch run of their season.

 

Chestnut Hill and Holy Family Battling for Playoff Spots

 

Finally we close out this week’s report with the other two Philadelphia area schools in the CACC, Chestnut Hill College and Holy Family University.

 

The Griffins won their only game last week, defeating Goldey-Beacom 75-64 to move to 14-9 overall and 10-3 in league play.  Chestnut Hill is currently in third place in the CACC South and is on the cusp of clinching a playoff spot.

 

Mary Trossi led the Griffins with 21 points.  Shannon Glenn added 17 and Vicky Tumasz chipped in 12.  Jaeda Wildgoose recorded a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

 

Goldey-Beacom scored the first basket for their only lead of the game at 2-0 before Glenn’s three-pointer put the lead back into the Griffins hands for good.  Chestnut Hill built a 38-26 lead at the half and never looked back as the Lightning would only come as close as eight points in the final quarter.

 

Holy Family dropped their only game of the week, losing to the top team in the CACC North Division Caldwell University 65-60.  The Tigers are 7-14 overall and 6-7 in league play, currently holding fourth place in the CACC South division.

 

Casey Thomas led the Tigers with 17 points while Elizabeth Radley added 16 and a team-high eight rebounds.  Casey Schweitzer chipped in 12 points and seven boards.

 

The Tigers jumped out to a 12-0 lead and led by six 18-12 after oneperiod.  The Cougars battled back and took a 30-27 lead at halftime.  

Holy Family tied the game three times in the third quarter before Caldwell opened up a six point advantage heading into the final period.   The Tigers pulled within one on two occasions in the final quarter and trailed by two in the waning minutes before the Cougars finished the game on a 5-2 run.

 

That’s all for this week in the area Division II realm…We’ll bring you the Sciences-Jefferson recap and update the playoff scenarios next week.