INDIANA, Pa. – Senior guard Dante Lombardi tied a career-high with 33 points as the top-seed Crimson Hawks put together one of their top offensive performances of the season and defeat West Chester 90-69 in the semifinals of the 2019 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championships Saturday at the Kovalchick Complex.
 
IUP advances to Sunday's PSAC title game and will square off against Mercyhurst at 3 p.m. at the KCAC.
 
Lombardi keyed an offensive attack that helped the Crimson Hawks post their best shooting performance of the season converting 56.6 percent (30-of-53) from the field. They hit 12 3-pointers, finished 18-of-23 at the foul line, and scored the most points since putting up 102 in a win over Edinboro January 21.
 
Lombardi knocked down seven of those 3-pointers, finished 10-of-16 from the field and 6-of-6 from the foul line in 36 minutes of action.
 
Despite the high-octane IUP offense, West Chester (22-8) seemed to take control early with its dominance on the glass. The Golden Rams held a 12-2 rebound margin in the first six minutes with seven of those boards coming on the offensive end as they held a 16-11 lead.
 
The Crimson Hawks responded by cranking up their defense and kept West Chester off the board for the next 5:28, with Lombardi and redshirt freshman guard Armoni Foster knocking down 3-pointers to take a 19-16 lead.
 
WCU eventually regained the lead at 20-19 but the IUP fireworks followed with Willem Brandwijk, Jacobo Diaz and Chucky Humphries threw down dunks while Lombardi drained two more treys for a 31-25 lead.
 
The Golden Rams took the momentum into the half, cutting IUP's lead to 35-33 going into the locker room.
 
That momentum continued as WCU used a 10-3 run between the first and second half to take a 39-38 lead minutes into second frame.
 
After the first media timeout of the half, the Crimson Hawks took over. Junior guard Malik Miller made his first bucket of the game with a 3-pointer from the corner as IUP jumped back on top. That jumpstarted an 18-7 run as IUP built a double-digit lead at 56-46 with 11:34 to play.
 
Miller and Lombardi led the run, scoring a combined 16 points over 3:34 as the momentum jumped completely to the home team's bench. Lombardi hit three straight buckets, including a pair of 3-pointers, and Miller added eight more as the half neared the midway point.
 
West Chester stopped the run with a layup by Tim Toro to make it an 8-point game at 56-48. That was the closest the Golden Rams would get the rest of the day as IUP kept its lead in double-figures.
 
The Crimson Hawks never let up, extending its lead to 21 with 3:10 to play with a 19-8 run.
 
Two dunks by Miller and another by Humphries put an exclamation mark on the blowout win.
 
Miller had a huge second half, scoring all 16 of his points in the final 20 minutes. Lombardi added 18 points as they helped IUP scored 55 points on 66.7 percent shooting in the second half. Foster came off the bench to score 10 points as nine IUP players saw the scoring column.
 
West Chester finished with a 43-29 advantage on the glass with 22 offensive rebounds helping the Golden Rams score 22 second chance points.
 
Notes
The Crimson Hawks are No. 2 in the NABC and No. 2 in the D2SIDA Media Top 25 polls … They are also No. 1 in the NCAA Atlantic Region rankings for the third straight week … IUP improved to 17-1 at home this season … IUP is now 12-7 in PSAC semifinal games, including 5-3 under head coach Joe Lombardi … Lombardi improved to 17-8 in PSAC tournament games … The Crimson Hawks are 22-7 in home PSAC tournament games, 9-3 at the Kovalchick Complex … This was the fourth PSAC semifinal matchup between IUP and West Chester since 2012, each earning two victories.
 
Up next
The Crimson Hawks will take on Mercyhurst (23-6) in the PSAC Championship game Sunday at 3 p.m. These teams split their regular season series, with each winning on the other's home floor. The Crimson hawks won 77-66 Jan. 9 in Erie and the Lakers needed a buzzer beater for a 64-63 win at the KCAC February 2.
 
Follow
For up-to-date game information, visit IUPAthletics.com and follow IUP Men's Basketball on Twitter @IUPCrimsonHawk and @IUP_MBB.