WEST CHESTER, Pa.- After an emotional senior day victory over Bloomsburg in its regular-season finale on Saturday afternoon, the West Chester University men's basketball team (18-10, 15-7) has shifted its complete focus to its PSAC Tournament First Round game on Monday night vs the PSAC's southern-most member in Shepherd (13-14, 10-12). Monday night's clash will occur in Hollinger as the fourth-seeded Golden Rams welcome the fifth-seeded Rams of Shepherd for a rematch of the 2022 first-round clash against the Rams beginning at 7 p.m.

Fan Information

Tickets: All ticket sales for the 2024 PSAC Tournament are cashless, and tickets must be purchased online via this link.  Adult tickets will cost $10, while students ages k-12 will cost $5. There are no complimentary tickets for the PSAC Tournament. However, PSAC passes will be honored, and students from PSAC Member Institutions with valid, current IDs will be admitted free of charge.

With a Win

With a win, West Chester would advance to face top seed Lock Haven after the Bald Eagles won a three-way tie for the PSAC East Regular-Season crown to earn the top seed in the Tournament. Lock Haven will enjoy a luxury West Chester had a year ago as the Bald Eagles can rest and watch on Monday night, receiving a First-Round bye as one of the top two seeds.

Elsewhere in the PSAC, East Stroudsburg earned the third seed and will host sixth-seeded Mansfield, while Millersville awaits the winner of that matchup as the second seed out of the three-way tie. The PSAC Semifinals and Championship game will be played at the home of the highest remaining seed in the PSAC West. Gannon enters as the top seed out West, followed by Cal as the second seed.

Series Information

Winners of each of the last six in the series, West Chester has taken a series once close at 4-3 in favor of the Golden Rams and opened an impressive 10-3 lead all-time against Shepherd. West Chester has swept the regular-season series each of the last two years and has a PSAC Tournament win to show for its troubles against Shepherd, dispatching the Rams in a 4/5 matchup during the first round of the PSAC Tournament in 2022.

Last Time They Met

West Chester picked up its first win of February with a road matchup against Shepherd back on February 7. The Golden Rams carried a 39-38 lead into the halftime break, but as history would indicate, the game would come down to the final possessions. Shepherd erased a late-game deficit in the final 90 seconds of regulation and poked the ball away from Robert Smith (Philadelphia, Pa./Bishop McDevitt), who scored a game-high 31 as he drove the lane looking for a buzzer-beating winner at the end of the second half. This forced OT, which the Golden Rams largely dominated, getting out to an early lead and, despite some late threes by Shepherd, never trailed en route to an 86-82 victory over the Rams. This win was the Golden Rams third win over Shepherd in the final three seconds of regulation or OT in the last four meetings. Smith scored a career-high 31, along with 22 from Elijah Allen (Dover, Del./Dover) and another double-double by Jordan Kellier (Kingston, Jamaica/Redemption Christian) as he finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds.

Flock Talk

West Chester appears in the PSAC Tournament for the 12th consecutive year and will be looking to make its 12th straight appearance in the PSAC Quarterfinals with a victory over Shepherd tonight. Monday night will also mark the sixth year in a row that the PSAC Tournament has come to Hollinger Field House. To find the last time West Chester did not earn the right to host at least one round of the PSAC Tournament, one would have to venture back to the 2016-17 season when West Chester ended the year with a record of 14-15 overall. In the 2017 edition of the PSAC Tournament, West Chester ventured to Bloomsburg for a First Round matchup against the Huskies, defeating them by an 84-77 final before falling at Kutztown by a 114-93 final. These two teams met under eerily similar circumstances in 2022 as Millersville, a PSAC East Regular-Season Champion during that season, and West Chester hosted Shepherd in a First Round 4/5 matchup in Hollinger. West Chester won this matchup by an 88-79, staging an impressive comeback led by 27 points from Allen and 17 from Smith as West Chester improved to 17-11 on the year and advanced to the PSAC Quarterfinals at Millersville.

West Chester enters play tomorrow night, riding the momentum of an emotional 84-63 victory over Bloomsburg in Hollinger on Senior Day on Saturday afternoon. Senior Day games are always emotional for all the best reasons, as a program pauses to recognize the contributions of its senior class throughout their career. West Chester celebrated the careers of Smith and Kellier before the game on Saturday afternoon while also surprising Kellier with his parents, who joined the Golden Rams from Kingston, Jamaica, to see him play live for the first time in his collegiate career. Perhaps spurred by the emotion of this pregame ceremony, West Chester jumped out to an early lead, leading by 25 (47-22) at the half and never wavered, leading by as many as 38 in the second half en route to an 84-63 victory. Smith led all scorers with 22 points, while Kellier picked up his 17^th double-double of the year and ninth in the last 10 games, finishing with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

 Joshua Walker (Upper Marlboro, Md./Riverdale Baptist) chipped in 10 to go along with 13 from Elijah Allen (Dover, Del./Dover) and a career-high 12 points and eight rebounds from freshman Darrius Phillips (East Stroudsburg, Pa./Seton Hall Prep). West Chester shot 45.0 % (36-of-80) from the field in the victory, including a 5-of-29 (17.2 %) effort from three-point territory. Led by the game-high 12 rebounds from Kellier, West Chester also ended the game with a tremendous 59-32 lead in rebounding, including a 21-5 lead on the offensive glass, which translated into a 19-4 lead in second-chance points.

Allen and Smith are tied for the team lead in scoring, averaging 17.4 points per game each, while Walker is third, averaging 14.1 to go along with 13.0 points per game from Kellier, who also leads the team and PSAC in rebounding, averaging 10.9 rebounds per game. Kellier has had an outstanding 2023-24 season and has been even more impressive in PSAC East play in 12 of 16 PSAC East games. The graduate student forward ranks second in DII in double-doubles, trailing only Martez Brown of Lincoln Memorial, while also ranking in a tie for third in DII in rebounding, trailing only Brown and James Montgomery of Barry. Anthony Purnell Jr. (Chester, Pa./Kiski) remains the Golden Rams leader in assists, averaging 3.8 helpers per game, while Allen leads the group in steals, averaging 1.4 per game.
 
 The emergence of Saleem Payne (Philadelphia, Pa./Phelps School) has been an added benefit for West Chester in recent weeks as the freshman guard has started in each of the last three and scored eight or more in three of the previous four, including back-to-back double-figure efforts. Over the last two weeks of the regular season, Payne has averaged 7.3 points, 4.2 assists, and 4.0 rebounds per game, including an impressive 10-point, seven-assist effort in 17 minutes vs Shippensburg on 2/21 and an 11-point/seven-rebound effort in his first start at Mansfield on 2/24. Payne is just one of several players for West Chester who have successfully stepped into more prominent roles in recent weeks with Nix Varano (Chalfont, Pa./La Salle College HS), who scored 11 off the bench at Millersville earlier this week along with Luke Boyd (Somerton, Pa./Archbishop Ryan), Isaiah Thomas-McClain (Cheltenham, Pa./Cheltenham), Moro Osumanu (Reading, Pa./Reading), and Alex Walinski (New Hope, Pa./New Hope Solebury) being a handful of other Golden Rams playing enhanced roles in recent weeks.
 
As a team, West Chester ranks first in the PSAC in rebounding (40.6/g) and rebounding margin (+8.1) while also ranking fifth in scoring offense, averaging 82.0 points per game, which is third best in the PSAC. West Chester also ranks sixth in the PSAC in field goal percentage, shooting 46.0 % from the field, including a 34.1 % clip from beyond the arc, which is ninth in the PSAC, placing the Golden Rams squarely in the middle of the pack in their efforts from distance. The Golden Rams efforts on the glass, have also led to West Chester ranking second in the PSAC in opponent rebounding, holding opponents to an average of 32.5 rebounds per game. West Chester is 14-8 on the year when outrebounding its opponents and also holds a 401-237 lead in second-chance points on the season. Head coach Damien Blair's charges have also outscored their opponents in the paint 21 (16-5) times this season, holding an 857-548 (40.8-26.1/g) advantage in such games.
 
Scouting Shepherd

Winners of each of its last three, Shepherd enters play on Monday night with an overall record of 13-14, averaging 67.0 points per game on 42.8 % shooting from the field, including a 33.6 % effort from beyond the arc. The top defensive unit in the PSAC, head coach Justin Namolik's group, finds ways to stay in games by limiting their opponents, holding foes to an average of just 65.8 points per game.  
 
Shepherd's most recent victory coming into the PSAC Tournament came on its own Senior Day with an 88-62 win over Kutztown in West Virginia. Shepherd held a nine-point lead at the half and outscored its guests 55-38 in the second half to pull away for the 26-point victory. As a team, Shepherd shot a solid 47.7 % from the field, and a season-best 53.1 % from three-point range, with a season-high 17 makes from outside the arc. The Rams also ended the game with a season-high 19 assists en route to a season-high 88 points in the victory. Daniel McClain-Corley, who leads the team in scoring, averaging 14.8 points per game, led the Rams in this victory, finishing with 21 points, while Marcus Banks, who is second in rebounding, averaging 5.2 per game, corralled a team-high eight in the triumph. Phillip Jordan played the facilitator role to perfection once again, coming away with eight assists, increasing his season average to a team-best 4.4 per game. Jordan also leads the team in steals, averaging 1.7 per game, while ranking second in scoring (12.3/g) and third in rebounding (5.0/g).