Mar 9, 2003 By Jim Kriek For The 5 min read

CALIFORNIA – Ishmieal Kamara has a good reason to celebrate, but he will be waiting until after the basketball season to do so. Meanwhile, his teammates are more than happy to celebrate for him at this time.

Kamara swished a 3-point basket at the final buzzer yesterday to give California University of Pa. a come-from-behind 62-60 win over West Chester and move them into the PSAC championship game today against Millersville. Millersville gained the final with a 79-54 win over Clarion.

The championship game is set for 2 p.m. at California.

California (25-7) and West Chester (21-8) battled from the opening tip, through a crowd-pleasing, nail-biter that saw the score tied five times and the lead alternate 17 times before the issue was settled.

With two minutes to go, West Chester was leading 56-55, and was trying to work in closer to the basket. But the Rams made an errant pass, California recovered, and worked the clock down to 1:31, then called time out.

When play resumed, the Vulcans cut the clock to 1:18, then got the ball to Kamara, whose lay-in gave Cal a 57-56 lead. West Chester moved back down court and got a shot away, but missed, and Kevin Handy rebounded for California. Time was called with 52 seconds left, and when play resumed West Chester swiped a pass and drove for the basket, but missed the shot and WC’s Ramzee Stanton was fouled. He made both shots to give the Rams a 58-57 lead with 35.6 seconds to go.

California inbounded and WC went into a press, then fouled Kamara with 18 seconds remaining. He made both tries for a 59-58 California lead, and WC called time. The Rams inbounded and got the ball to Sam Grannum under the basket, and his lay-in put the Rams up 60-59 with four seconds to go.

As California moved down court, Mike Johnson saw Kamara loose in the corner, passed to him, and Kamara arched the ball straight and true, the buzzer sounding as the ball hit the rim of the basket. The officials signaled a good 3-pointer and California was on its way to the final.

Kamara said, “I never made a shot like that before. But right at the moment, I’m going to put it in the back of my mind and wait until the season ends, then celebrate. We have another bigger game coming up Sunday and right now I’m concentrating on that one.

“All I wanted to do after they scored that last basket to go ahead was get down court. I looked up at the clock and saw time was running out, so I wanted to get down there fast. Then Johnson got the ball to me.”

Vulcan coach Bill Brown added, “On that last timeout (with 18 seconds left) I told our players to keep the ball in front of them. Then they (WC) scored and I didn’t want to call time out and give them the chance to get their defense set, so we inbounded and went for the goal.”

Brown reminded that, “Before the tournament started, I told everybody this was going to be a tremendous week for college basketball. You have four teams here that have created a great basketball scenario. We played great enough to win, and we were fortunate to get out of here with the win.

“The last time we played West Chester, they out-rebounded us, so we knew today that we had to go to the boards with them. They are the most athletic team in our league, they are quick, and they are the only team that matches up with us physically. They have an All-American in their lineup (Stanton) and we were fortunate they didn’t go more to him in the first half, but in critical situations we stopped him.”

West Chester coach Dick Delaney added, “This was a heartbreaker, but I couldn’t be any prouder of our team for the effort they gave. We got behind and battled back, but they made that last shot.”

On their last time out of the game, Delaney said, “I told our players that they (Cal) were keying on Ramzee, so we had to make a move to Grannum. We did and he scored, but then they got the last shot. Rebounding was a big factor today, and a big asset for them (21 in the second half).”

With 4:35 to go in the first half, California was leading 28-20, then WC ran a 10-1 edge to take a 30-29 lead at the break. California drove back to start the second half and gained a 38-34 lead, only to see West Chester spurt again to go up, 46-40. Then it was nip and tuck from there, until the two-minute mark when the closing see-saw began.

Kamara led all scorers with 25 points, including the Vulcans’ last seven, plus six rebounds. Tom Frederick had 12 points and six boards, and Handy led Cal rebounders with nine. Stanton led West Chester with 16 points, plus nine rebounds, Grannum had 15 points and a game high 10 boards, and Bob Williams scored 11.

From the floor, Cal was 25-for-59, West Chester 24-for-50, and both were 4-for-14 in three-point baskets.