Golomski, Thomas Highlight Win Over V-Hawks as WPU Eyes Title Shot
William Penn Women’s Athletics
La Crosse, Wis.–Katie Golomski (So., Milwaukee, Wis., Psychology) had a career outing in her home state and Orielle Thomas (Sr., Waynesville, Mo., Physical Education) reached a major milestone to lead the Lady Statesmen basketball team to a 76-58 Midwest Collegiate Conference victory over Viterbo Wednesday.
William Penn (18-8, 9-2 MCC) will now travel to Des Moines Saturday to face #22 Grand View in a winner-take-all contest. The victor will claim the MCC’s regular season title as well as the top seed for the MCC Tournament.
Golomski broke a school single-game record nine three-pointers en route to a game and career-best 27 points. Thomas added just nine points, but it was enough for her to join the elusive 1,000-Point Club. The senior, who has actually only played three collegiate seasons, now has 1,004 points in the navy and gold. She is the 19th player in program history to reach the 1,000-point mark.
The Lady Statesmen, winners of three straight, trailed by six with 7:47 left in the first half. They rallied with 16 of the next 21 points to take a five-point edge and eventually led by one at 35-34 at halftime.
William Penn then went on a 35-11 run to open the second stanza to go up by a game-high 23 points and cruised to the victory. The visitors topped the V-Hawks (10-19, 4-7 MCC) in shooting 48.4%30.8%, including a 51.6%-24.2% margin after intermission.
The squads both finished with 40 rebounds (Thomas had a game-high 12), while the visitors actually committed one more turnover than Viterbo, 13-12. Fortunately, the Lady Statesmen were better at taking advantage of the mistakes with a 15-4 edge in points off turnovers.
Only 19 fouls were whistled, leading to just 20 total free throws (WPU was 4-of-7).
Sarah Martin (Sr., Anthem, Ariz., Physical Education) joined Golomski in double figures with ten points, while Megan Evangelista (Jr., Chanhassen, Minn., Biology) managed eight points. Vanessa Kieres (So., Chicago, Ill., Physical Education), with seven points, and Jessie Kreuser (So., Mendota Heights, Minn., Undecided), with six points, were also solid on the offensive end.
Janay Pritchett (So., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Biology) was limited to five points, but led all participants with seven assists. Golomski also blocked two shots, while Thomas stole two passes.
“We were not crisp offensively in the first half, but we did enough defensively in the first 20 minutes to keep it close,” Lady Statesmen Head Coach Mike Brown said. “Then Katie and everyone else caught fire in the second half. Katie’s outside game opened up a lot of things for us. Vanessa was great in both halves as well.”
“This was a great road win for us,” Brown added. “Traveling five hours and then playing soon after getting off the bus is really challenging. Now we look forward to one more challenge on Saturday against Grand View. We hope to get a great William Penn crowd up to Des Moines to cheer our ladies to a conference title.”
