William Penn Basketball February 3
William Penn Women's Athletics
Subbert Reaches 2,000 Point Plateau in Loss to Tigers
Mount Pleasant–It was a bittersweet night on Thursday as one of the best players in program history met another milestone, but unfortunately it was in a loss as the Penn women’s basketball team fell to Iowa Wesleyan 88-69 in Midwest Collegiate Conference action.
In a battle of two ranked teams, the #16 Lady Statesmen (18-8, 9-3 MCC) were outmatched against the #20 Tigers (18-5, 9-2 MCC), evening the season series at 1-1 (both teams winning at home).
Penn is now one-half game back of IWC and St. Ambrose and is tied with Mount Mercy for third. The other three teams have to play each for the second time, however, while Penn’s road is much simpler. The team’s final four opponents have a combined league mark of just 15-31.
Despite the loss, there was a silver lining as Christa Subbert (Sr., Stanton, Stanton HS) surpassed the 2,000-point mark for her career, scoring nine points to currently own a tally of 2,007 points.
The senior is just the third player in school history to accomplish the feat, joining Becky Inman (2,139 points, 1984-1987) and Glenda Poock (2,077 points, 1976-1979).
Subbert scored 399 points as a freshman, 551 points as a sophomore, 521 points last year, and has put up 536 points this winter. For her career, she is averaging 16.9 points in 119 games.
Individually, the night belonged to Subbert, but on the scoreboard it was all Tigers as the home team went wire-to-wire (one tie) for the win.
Penn, who was outshot 53.6%-42.2%, collected a team-high 22 points from Orielle Thomas (Fr., Waynesville, Mo., Waynesville HS). The freshman added a game-best ten rebounds to lead all participants. It is her fourth double-double of the season.
Kim Thompson (Fr., Park Forest, Ill., Upper Iowa) joined her in double digits with 13 points, while Rachel Butler (Sr., Orange County, Calif., Cerritos CC) managed seven in the loss.
Subbert added three blocks and three steals (both game highs), while Carleigh Hobson (Sr., Lancaster, Calif., Antelope Valley CC) passed out three assists.
“We certainly did not play our best tonight and will now have to watch as the other three teams at the top play each other to see where we land in the league,” Lady Statesmen Head Coach Brian Spielbauer said. “We held serve by beating all of them at home, but we could not get it done at their place. Hopefully, we will get back to our game this weekend against Viterbo and finish the year strong.”
Following the game, Spielbauer had nothing but praise for Subbert and what she has done in her four years in the navy and gold.
“Christa is a special player and has been a major reason for our program’s turnaround,” Spielbauer said. “She is the most humble person that I have ever coached and wants none of the spotlight on her. Although the individual accolades are nice, what she really wants is for her team and that would have made her night if we could have pulled this one out.”
Next: Penn returns to Oskaloosa Saturday to host Viterbo in MCC play at 1 p.m.
Statesmen Nearly Upset League-Leading Iowa Wesleyan on Road
Mount Pleasant–The Penn men’s basketball team has been finding a way recently to make games much more interesting than they should be and on Thursday night, it almost pulled the biggest upset in Midwest Collegiate Conference play this winter in a 74-73 loss to #10 Iowa Wesleyan.
The Statesmen (11-14, 3-9 MCC) have come so close in recent losses to St. Ambrose (77-74), Mount Mercy (86-82), and St. Ambrose again (78-71). Thursday’s setback was just another chapter in the program’s valiant, yet frustrating 2010-2011 novel.
Penn trailed 39-30 at the break and fell behind by as much as 14 at 49-35 with 15:51 remaining before producing a big run. Chipping away for the next several minutes, the visitors eventually recaptured the lead at 60-59, its first advantage since a 6-5 edge.
The teams battled for the remainder of the evening, until it seemed all was lost as Iowa Wesleyan (18-2, 10-1 MCC) went ahead by six with 32 seconds left.
Fortunately, with relatively nothing to lose, Penn just kept fighting and after a missed three-pointer by Brandon Beasley (Jr., Indianapolis, Ind., Columbus State CC), Blake Walker (Fr., Smyrna, Ga., Campbell HS) came up with the rebound, made the layup, and was fouled. He completed the three-point play and the deficit was cut to three at 73-30.
The Tigers extended the margin to four with one of two free throws before Walker stepped up again with another three, this time from behind the arc, and Penn trailed by one with just over two seconds left.
The winds of misfortune blew again, however, as the inbounds pass by Iowa Wesleyan was thrown long, into the arms of a wide-open player, and the final seconds melted away without any further drama.
Walker paced the Statesmen with 18 points and eight rebounds, while Wiebe Goodyk (So., Oskaloosa, Iowa Central CC) added 11 points and Beasley finished with ten.
Alan Douglas (Jr., Champaign, Ill., Lakeland CC) and Nick Coffey (Sr., Hinsdale, Ill., Hinsdale Central HS) each posted nine-point showings and A.J. Rogers (So., Patoka, Ind., Princeton HS) contributed eight points and a team-high five assists.
Beasley and Douglas recorded three thefts Thursday.
Penn, like usual, was successful on the glass with a 50-40 edge (20-15 second-chance points).
“I could not be prouder of our team tonight,” Statesmen Head Coach John Henry said. “One of these times we are going to win a game like this and then watch out because we will know how to win and our confidence will be sky high. Even though we are not winning, we are a dangerous team right now and honestly, I would not want to play us in the conference tournament.”
Next: Penn returns to Oskaloosa Saturday to host Viterbo in MCC play at 1 p.m.
