West Chester, Pa. – The Edinboro women's basketball team dropped a 79-55 decision to host West Chester Saturday in PSAC crossover action.
 
After Emily McAteer opened the scoring with a layup to put West Chester up-2-0, Morgan Gentile hit a 3-pointer and then a jumper give the Scots an early 5-2 lead. Back-to-back buckets from Jayde Boyd gave the Golden Rams a 6-5 advantage. Edinboro went on a 7-2 spurt with Hayley Sims scoring all seven to take a 13-8 advantage with 1:48 left in the first. West Chester scored the next nine points before Lauren Mullen hit a pair of free throws to trim the West Chester lead to 17-15 after one.
 
Leah Johnson opened the second with five straight to push the Golden Ram lead to 22-15. Ashten Boggs hit a layup and Sims drilled a triple to trim the advantage to 22-20 with 8:27 left in the second.
 
With the Rams holding a 33-30 advantage after a Gentile free throw, West Chester closed out the first half with a 6-0 run to take a 39-30 lead into the break.
 
The momentum carried into the second half, as West Chester scored the first nine points of the second half to push the lead to 48-30 at the 7:29 mark of the third. Allyson Kirby ended the run with a free throw at the 5:21 mark of the quarter. Sims finished an old-fashioned 3-point play as part of a 9-2 run that cut the lead to 50-39 after a Mullen trey at the 3:05 mark of the third. The Golden Rams carried a 56-44 lead into fourth.
 
The Scots would cut the lead to 11 twice in the fourth quarter, but couldn't close the gap as the Golden Rams opened up a lead down the stretch.
 
Sims paced the Edinboro offense with 24 points to go with five boards, three steals and two assists. Gentile tallied 12 points and six boards. Kirby pulled down a team-high seven rebounds.
 
Johnson was the leading scorer for West Chester with 27 points. McAteer tallied a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds.
 
The Scots are ack in action on Dec. 14 when they host Charleston at 2 p.m. inside McComb Fieldhouse.