William Penn Sneaks Off with 93-91 Win Over Tigers
William Penn University Athletics
Mount Pleasant–Pure domination of the glass and a little luck down the stretch propelled the Statesmen cagers to a 93-91 win over Iowa Wesleyan that muddied the waters even more in the Midwest Collegiate Conference race.
William Penn (8-9, 3-2 MCC) held off the Tigers (8-4, 3-2 MCC) as the home team committed a turnover and missed two buckets in the closing seconds to cause a four-way tie for second in the league behind 4-1 St. Ambrose. The Fighting Bees fell to Grand View 62-53 Saturday.
Alan Douglas (Sr., Champaign, Ill., Lakeland CC) scored a game-high 26 points in addition to 12 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the year. He was just 8-of-24 from the field, but went 8-of-10 at the line. Unfortunately, his final try went offline, giving the home team a chance to not only tie but win in its final possession.
The Tigers’ Jeff Harper pulled down the rebound with 11 seconds left and the ball was pushed up the court quickly. Davis Warner looked for the win, but his shot would not fall. Kyle Warner collected the offensive board, however, but he also failed to find the bottom of the net and time expired.
The offensive rebound was one of eight that accounted for only one point, while the navy and gold corralled 18 offensive caroms, good for 24 points. William Penn owned a 49-34 edge in rebounding as Austin Emerson (Jr., Des Moines, Southwestern CC) joined Douglas in double digits with ten collections.
The closely-contested matchup saw ten ties, 11 lead changes, and a shooting comparison of 47.1%-46.2% in favor of Iowa Wesleyan. Taylor Stoutner (Jr., Keota, Keota HS) made three three-pointers on his way to 19 points, while Arman Rasul (Jr., Chicago, Ill., Illinois-Chicago) recorded 14 points with three steals off the bench.
Blake Walker (So., Rose Garden, Ga., Campbell HS) also met the mark with 13 points in addition to five assists.
Emerson tallied eight points, while Keith Steffeck (Jr., Marion, Marion HS) added seven and Davis Spielbauer (Jr., Wapello, Wapello HS) produced six.
Both programs controlled possession fairly well with William Penn committing 14 turnovers to 13 for Iowa Wesleyan. The Statesmen were 13-of-18 at the line (18-of-25 for IWC) and 8-of-28 from the perimeter (IWC was 9-of-28).
“Arman Rasul and Davis Spielbauer were awesome for us off the bench,” Head Coach John Henry said. “Arman played great defense and Davis’ clutch three-pointer late in the game was huge. I am happy to see them have big games.”
Next: The Statesmen return home Wednesday to host Grand View in MCC play at 7:30 p.m. in the annual Toilet Paper game.
