Mar 5, 2016 4 min read

CALIFORNIA – For the second straight year, the California University women’s basketball team will play for the PSAC championship.

California downed Shippensburg, 78-62, Saturday afternoon at Hamer Hall in the tournament semifinals.

“I feel the final four (in the PSAC) are pretty even and anyone could have won,” said fifth-year Cal coach Jess Strom. “This was a good win today, and I don’t think (Shippensburg) faced defensive pressure like ours this year.”

The win was Cal’s 12th straight, and it extends its undefeated record in PSAC semifinal games all-time to 14-0.

Cal will face IUP (21-7) today in the finals at Hamer Hall. Tipoff is 3 p.m. IUP advanced with a 77-64 win over West Chester in the first semifinal.

Shatara Parsons paced Cal (23-5) early with 10 points – eight on jump shots – in the first quarter while Shippensburg’s Morgan Griffith, the PSAC East Division Player of the Year, led the Raiders (21-7) with six points in the opening quarter.

Parsons, who finished with 18 points, explained her fast start.

“I wanted to take what they were giving me,” the sophomore said. “Everyone in the PSAC knows I sweep and go right, so they weren’t expecting me to shoot, but I was able to today.”

Cal, the defending PSAC champion, led after one quarter, 21-12.

The Vulcans extended their lead in the second quarter on 10 of 16 shooting with junior point guard Miki Glenn and sophomore forward Seairra Barrett each scoring six points, as the Vulcans took a 42-26 lead into the half.

Griffith, a junior, picked up her third and fourth fouls within a 42-second span in the third quarter, and when she left the game with 7:27 to play in the quarter, Cal led, 47-26.

However, the Raiders went on a 14-4 run, and when junior Lauren Gold hit a layup with 1:49 to go in the quarter, the Vulcans’ lead had been trimmed to 51-40.

During the Shippensburg run, Chartiers Valley graduate Kristin McGeough, a sophomore, scored six of her eight points.

Strom noticed the play of her team dipped when Griffith went to the bench.

“She is really good, and lucky for us she got in foul trouble,” Strom said. “When she was on the bench we should have attacked them. When she went out, we should have stepped on it and we didn’t.”

The Vulcans closed out the quarter on a 7-2 run and led 58-43 heading into the final 10 minutes.

Shippensburg would get no closer than 12 points in the fourth quarter.

According to Strom, the play of Glenn, the PSAC West Division Player of the Year, was the difference.

“She runs our team and had a good feel for what we need at certain times,” she said of Glenn, who finished with 25 points, seven assists, and six rebounds. “It doesn’t always have to be scoring, but when we needed a play she would make it.”

Glenn humbly replied, “My team looks to me to make things happen, and I had the mentality today that I had to do that. I try to get the ball to them where they need to be.”

The Vulcans shot 54 percent (33 of 61) from the field and the Raiders shot 48 percent (24 of 50).

“Now we play our rival,” Strom said. “They know what we do and we know what they do.”

Cal and IUP split the season series with both teams protecting their home court.

IUP trailed West Chester, 20-18, after the first quarter but the Crimson Hawks used a 26-17 advantage in the fourth quarter to pull away, 77-64.

Leslie Stapleton led IUP with 33 points, making six of 11 from three-point range.

Barrett also scored 18 points for Cal. Junior Colleen Young led the Raiders with 18. … Gold finished with 12 points and Griffith 11 for Shippensburg … Strom is 109-34 in five seasons as head coach at Cal.