Team Effort Pushes Statesmen to Win Over Graceland
Oskaloosa, Iowa—The Statesmen were back on the hardwood Thursday as they took on their Heart of America Athletic Conference foes from just a couple hours south, Graceland.
William Penn (11-1, 5-1 Heart) led from the jump and did not surrender a lead to Graceland (5-5, 3-3 Heart) en route to a 100-79 victory. It was the seventh time this season they have eclipsed the 100-point mark.
The Statesmen opened up on a 22-6 run capped off by an Ahmad Pender (Jr., Chicago, Ill., Wellness and Recreation) put back bucket at the 12:03 mark. After the hot start, WPU cooled off a bit and the Yellowjackets found themselves back in the ball game and only down three points with 4:20 left in the first half. However, the home squad responded and ended the half on an 11-2 run with Nathan Gehring (Jr., Waukee, Iowa) contributing four of the points and went into the break up 46-34.
In the second half, Graceland was able to hang around and keep it interesting, cutting the lead to single-digits on multiple occasions but a 13-3 run from the Statesmen with 3:58 remaining sealed the deal.
The navy and gold out shot the Yellowjackets 56.1%-35% (30.8%-29.4% 3p%).
Despite getting outrebounded 51-48, William Penn dominated in the paint with a 54-34 edge. The second unit was huge for WPU as the bench scored 37 points opposed to Graceland’s 22.
Four Statesmen tallied reached double-figures in the win, led by Dexter Hood (Sr., Tuscaloosa, Ala.) with 19 points. He added eight rebounds and a couple of steals as well. Karmari Newman (Jr., Detroit, Mich., Digital Communication) continued his hot shooting from beyond the arc, going 5-10 and accounting for 17 points while adding three steals. Gehring narrowly missed a double-double collecting 15 points and nine boards while Q Cager (Jr., Hopkinsville, Ky., Wellness and Recreation) had 12 points. Brandon Faison (Jr., Charlotte, N.C.) stuffed the stat sheet coming off the bench as he finished with eight points, six boards, and six assists. Eddie Daley (Jr., DeWitt, Mich., Business Management) and Josh Watkins (Jr., Chicago, Ill., Sports Management) gave their squad quality minutes off the bench, combining for 17 points, finishing with eight and nine respectively.
“We are always happy to win but we as a team admit we weren’t very good tonight.” said Head Coach John Henry, “Free throw shooting, turnovers, and poor defensive rebounding, all three need to be much better.”
Next Up: The Statesmen will have less than 48 hours before they host Evangel on Saturday in the Penn Gymnasium with tip-off scheduled for 2 pm.
