Defending Division II women's basketball national champion Glenville State advances to Elite Eight

Glenville State (32-2) advances to the Elite Eight, where their opponent is yet to be determined as the field will be reseeded once all regionals are complete.

“I’m really, really surprised with the way it went,” Glenville State coach Kim Stephens said. “I’m happy with it. West Chester’s a great team. They have phenomenal coaches…we’ve been battling with them since I first started coaching.”

West Chester ends with a 24-9 record.

The national quarterfinals and semifinals are at the St. Joseph Civic Arena in St. Joseph, Mo. on March 20 and 22, respectively, with the national championship game on April 1 at American Airlines Center in Dallas during the Division I Women’s Final Four.

“Unbelievable that we’ve gotten here with this group. I don’t think it’s even set in yet what they’ve just accomplished and how big of a deal and how rare it is, but I’m so proud of them,” Stephens said.

Regional MVP Breanna Campbell led Glenville State with 24 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.

“I just enjoy playing basketball, so I just try to make basketball plays all the time,” Campbell said. “If it’s passing to an open teammate, that’s what I like to do. If it’s getting down there with the big girls, I enjoy doing that, too.”

Mickayla Perdue put in 13 points and five rebounds and Tore’ Alford (12 points) and Hya Haywood (11) were also in double figures.

Leah Johnson scored a game-high 26 points for West Chester and Emily McAteer added 14 points and 10 rebounds.

“Leah Johnson is incredible,” Stephens said. “She had a great year. She had a great game today. We really didn’t have a whole lot to stop her.”

The Pioneers made 15 3-pointers as a team to the Golden Rams’ one and had 10 more offensive rebounds than the visitors.

“I thought our rebounding was bad in the first half and we held them to three offensive rebounds in the second half, so I think that was big, and we ended up with 25 offensive rebounds, so I’m pretty proud with that number, too.”

“I think everybody just bought in today, with rebounds, with boxing out,” Perdue said. “Everybody was crashing, everybody was boxing out, and that was a big part of the win.”

The Pioneers opened with the game’s first five points on a layup by Campbell and a 3 from Perdue, but the Golden Rams countered with a 9-2 run as McAteer scored four and Leah Johnson hit a 3 after Michelle Kozicki opened things with a layup.

West Chester led 13-10 after a McAteer layup with 5:42 left in the quarter, but the Pioneers caught fire from 3 as Alford, Perdue and Alford connected to earn Glenville State a 19-13 lead.

They never gave the advantage back, taking a 24-19 lead to the second quarter.

Starting with a layup by Campbell to cap the first quarter, the Pioneers went on a 13-4 run that includes a trio of 3s from Cabria Lewis, Haywood and Perdue, increasing the advantage to 35-21 with 6:57 remaining in the half.

After a McAteer layup, the Pioneers launched another run, this time 10-2 as Campbell scored four, to go up by 20, 45-25.

It was a 52-29 Pioneer lead at halftime.

“It’s big, especially because I knew at halftime we weren’t going to keep shooting it like that, so I knew we had to keep our foot on the gas pedal defensively and with the rebounds because we weren’t going to be able to sustain that,” Stephens said.

A Perdue jumper with 7:49 left in the third pushed it to a 25-point lead, 59-34. and a Campbell layup at the 6:29 mark increased it to 30, 68-38.

Glenville State took a 79-51 advantage to the fourth quarter and continued to cruise from there.

“We recruited really good kids, not only athletic, talented basketball players, but kids that wanted to come and win a championship,” Stephens said. “That’s what Glenville does. People don’t come here for the big-town atmosphere. They come here because they want to win championships.

“And that’s what we did.”