William Penn Athletics News January 23
William Penn University Athletics
Men Stop Skid by Utilizing Limited Rotation
Clinton–Understandably frustrated at his team’s recent lack of success, Statesmen Head Coach John Henry and his staff took drastic measures at halftime of Penn’s game against Ashford and fortunately it worked to perfection as the team ended its losing streak with a 71-62 win in Midwest Collegiate Conference action Saturday.
The Statesmen (10-10, 2-5 MCC) ended their streak at six games by implementing a six-man rotation during the second half.
Trailing 33-30 at intermission, the staff decided to go with their strongest players and see how far they could take the struggling squad. It turns out pretty far as Penn clipped one of this year’s league frontrunners in Ashford (15-7, 6-2 MCC).
After giving up the first two points of the second half, Penn exploded for 14 unanswered points and never looked back. Much of the second stanza was spent with the visitors owning a double-digit advantage.
After shooting a respectable 45.5% in the first half, the Statesmen were even more effective after the break (60.0%) and were strong at getting to the line as well (15-of-22).
The team’s prowess on the glass (32-23) was another staple in the victory with a 15-6 edge in second-chance points.
Alan Douglas (Jr., Champaign, Ill., Lakeland CC) was by far the most effective participant for Penn, scoring a team-best 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting (5-of-5 FT), while Wiebe Goodyk (So., Oskaloosa, Iowa Central CC) was next with 15 points (5-of-10, all 3-PT), including keeping his team in the game early with four first-half trifectas.
Brandon Beasley (Jr., Indianapolis, Ind., Columbus State CC) tallied 12 points, while Huzie Hambrite (Jr., Indianapolis, Ind., Ball State) joined the double-figure club with ten points and a squad-high six rebounds.
Blake Walker (Fr., Smyrna, Ga., Campbell HS), with nine points, and Nick Coffey (Sr., Hinsdale, Ill., Hinsdale Central HS), with six points, were the other lone second-half participants. The half dozen players all saw at least 24 minutes of action, while no other Statesmen player reached double figures in that column.
“Wiebe kept us in the game in the first half,” Henry said. “We then shortened our rotation to just six and all six of those players were awesome and made big play after big play. These were the performances we have been looking for all year and it was fun to watch those guys work so hard to get a big win.”
Next: Penn travels to Forest City Monday to face Waldorf in MCC play at 7:30 p.m.
Subbert Lethal from Downtown in Ashford Win
William Penn Women's Athletics
Clinton–Christa Subbert (Sr., Stanton, Stanton HS) connected on a career-high seven three-pointers to pace the Lady Statesmen cagers to a 69-51 win over Ashford in Midwest Collegiate Conference action Saturday.
Penn (16-6, 7-1 MCC) has now taken six in a row, the program’s longest mark since also winning six straight in 1993-1994. The team is also ten games over .500 for the first time since the 1988-1989 campaign (finished at 19-7).
The Lady Statesmen enter the second half of league play tied with #13 St. Ambrose atop the league standings at 7-1 (SAU owns the tiebreaker), while #12 Iowa Wesleyan and (RV) Mount Mercy, who have both succumbed to Penn, are one game back at 6-2.
The visitors went wire-to-wire for Saturday’s victory, leading by double digits for most of the afternoon. Defense was the biggest key to their success as Ashford (3-19, 0-8 MCC) was limited to just 29.1% from the field (WPU was 47.2%). The Saints were also forced into 20 turnovers (18 for Penn), which were converted into 23 Lady Statesmen points.
Subbert led all players with 29 points on 9-of-16 shooting, but her greatest success came from long range, going 7-of-9 from behind the arc. Her teammates followed suit as the team finished 10-of-14 (71.4%), its best single-game three-point performance since joining the NAIA in 2001-2002 (minimum of ten attempts).
Samantha Darley (Sr., Gilbert, Ariz., Mesa CC) and Orielle Thomas (Fr., Waynesville, Mo., Waynesville HS) joined Subbert in double figures with 12 points each, while Thomas pulled down a game-high 15 rebounds for her second double-double of the year.
Rachel Butler (Sr., Orange County, Calif., Cerritos CC) just missed double digits with nine points.
Despite scoring just two points, Randi Olson (Jr., Federal Way, Wash., Highline CC) did a good deal of damage at the point with nine assists, while Kim Thompson (Fr., Park Forest, Ill., Upper Iowa) had a team-best three steals off the bench.
Penn was also productive at the line, making all but one of its ten free throws.
Next: Penn travels to Forest City Monday to face Waldorf in MCC play at 5:30 p.m.
Tracksters Compete at Iowa State Open
Ames–A highly-competitive meet with many NCAA Division I-caliber athletes gave the Penn track and field teams all they could handle and more at the Iowa State Open Saturday.
Gabriel Green (So., Anniston, Ala., Anniston HS) again guided the Statesmen, taking a couple top finishes in the sprints. The sophomore bettered his national-qualifying time in the 200-meter time with a seventh-place finish in a time of 22.11 seconds. He narrowly missed the top ten in the 400, taking 11th in a time of 50.54 seconds.
Carlos Stepter (Sr., Highland Park, Mich., Highland Park HS) also bettered one of his sprint times, but it still left him on the outside looking in for nationals. The senior was eighth in the 60-meter dash in a time of 6.96 seconds, while the NAIA ‘B’ qualifying standard is 0.01 seconds faster at 6.95.
Josh Roudabush (Sr., Brooklyn, BGM HS) also gave a qualifying mark a scare as he placed 23rd in the 600-yard run in a time of 1:15.28 (‘B’ qualifying time is 1:13.93).
Jonathan Pope (Sr., Starkville, Miss., Starkville HS) was third in the non-seeded high jump at 6-6.75, while Kipp Schuler (Sr., Haviland, Kan., Dana) also managed to get inside the top 20 in his event, placing 17th in the non-seeded 3,000-meter run in a time of 9:23.73.
Nicole Rogge (Fr., Glendale, Ariz., Apollo HS), with a 24th-place showing in the 3,000-meter non-seeded race (12:11.50), and Ashley Lyons (Fr., Wichita, Kan., Wichita Collegiate HS), with a 26th-place finish in the shot put (33-10.75), led the Lady Statesmen cause Saturday.
Next: Penn takes a week off before traveling to Mount Vernon on Saturday, February 5 to compete in the Hilltop Invitational hosted by Cornell.
