Statesmen Thump Yellowjackets 92-59
Oskaloosa–The William Penn women’s basketball team hit a season-high 15 three-pointers en route to a 92-59 Heart of America Athletic Conference victory over Graceland Thursday.
WPU (6-3, 4-2 Heart), which tallied a season high in points, dominated the first quarter and cruised to the win, its 14th in a row against Graceland (2-9, 0-6 Heart). The sides traded blows in the first three minutes, but ahead 7-6, the Statesmen opened it up by scoring 12 in a row as part of a 23-3 run to close the first quarter with a 30-9 edge.
The second period was not as dominating for the navy and gold, but they still owned a 21-14 margin to claim a 51-23 advantage at intermission. At that juncture, William Penn was shooting 59.4% from the field, while GU was limited to a 23.7% clip.
Graceland was able to make the halftime score a bit more reasonable with 12 offensive rebounds, but failed on many of those extra chances.
Holding a 28-point advantage at the break, the home squad let off the gas a bit and was outscored by one in the third quarter. Fortunately, the final result was never in question as WPU added 26 points in the final period to cozy up close to the century mark.
Overall, it was a bit of a strange game with the Statesmen holding a 52.5%-35.3% shooting edge and a 40-37 margin on the glass, which tells an easy story of how they finished on top. However, helped by its 16 offensive boards (nine for WPU), GU chucked up seven more shots (68-61) than the home team. Despite the -7 margin in offensive rebounds, WPU was still able to tie the visitors in second-chance points at 11 apiece.
The biggest difference came from behind the arc as the navy and gold ended up 15-for-31 (48.4%), while the Yellowjackets were only 2-for-14 on the perimeter.
A total of 10 WPU cagers scored at least five points with Madisyn Rogan (Fr., Stevens Point, Wis., Applied Mathematics) topping the team with 16 points. The freshman was 6-for-10 from the field, including 4-for-8 from three-point land.
Kate Ylitalo (Sr., Maple Plain, Minn., Biology) was next in scoring with 12, while Brenda Pennington (Sr., Hammond, Ind., Psychology) and Bailey Reardon (River Falls, Wis., Elementary Education) also reached double figures with 10 points each. Reardon guided the defensive effort with a pair of blocked shots as well. Haley Mullinnix (Jr., West Branch, Iowa, Sports Management) and Makenzie Pezley (Sr., Keokuk, Iowa, Elementary Education) narrowly missed the mark with nine points apiece, and Journie Augmon (Las Vegas, Nev., Undecided) contributed a quick seven in under three minutes on the hardwood.
The trio of Nyachristmas Puok (Sr., Des Moines, Iowa, Biology), Brittany West (Jr., Shakopee, Minn., Sports Management), and Olivia Usher (Sr., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Mathematics) all ended up with five points Thursday.
The hosts were strong at the charity stripe as well, connecting on 13 of their 16 tries, while Graceland finished 9-for-15 overall. It was a fairly clean game in regards to turnovers with WPU turning the ball over 11 times, compared to 12 for GU; the Statesmen held a 16-14 edge in points off turnovers.
“We played very well tonight,” Head Coach Steve Williamson said. “We moved the ball and that led to a lot of easy shots. It was great to see freshmen Madisyn Rogan and Bailey Reardon both give us great minutes off the bench.”
Next Up: William Penn remains in Oskaloosa Saturday to host Evangel in Heart action at noon.
