Statesmen Hold Off AIB to Reach League Finals

William Penn University Athletics

William Penn University Athletics

Des Moines–The William Penn men’s basketball team earned yet another trip to the Midwest Collegiate Conference Tournament Finals in its 71-63 upset of#2 seed AIB in Friday’s semifinals.

The third-seeded Statesmen (20-11) will now meet #13 and regular-season champion Mount Mercy in Sunday’s championship game at 6 p.m. in Cedar Rapids. The Mustangs, who beat #5 Grand View 72-61 in the other semi, won both regular-season meetings–91-86 in overtime in Oskaloosa on January 17 and 91-83 on February 7 in Cedar Rapids.

Friday’s defensive battle saw WPU outshoot the Eagles (19-10) 37.9%-33.3% in what was unfortunately the final home game at the AIB Activities Center (athletics ending after this spring).

The hard-fought tight battle ironically had the visitors in the lead for all but 21 seconds. The navy and gold scored first and only trailed once at 4-3. A trifecta by Alec Schwab (Sr., Peru, Ill., Business Management), one of his four on the night, gave the squad the lead back and for good at 6-4. William Penn pulled out to a ten-point margin at 22-12 on a three-point play by Oliver Wells (Sr., Cedar Hill, Texas, Business Management), but courtesy of a 7-2 run, AIB narrowed the deficit to 32-27 at halftime.

The trio of Schwab, Wells, and Jake Guenther (Jr., Altoona, Iowa, Secondary Education) accounted for all but one of the Statesmen’s points at that juncture. The trio’s success was necessary as WPU was without the services of Shane Bosek (Jr., Lowry, Minn., Physical Education), who was held out of action due to injury. Bosek entered the night averaging 17.2 points per outing, so others were needed to step up in his absence and they did.

The Eagles stayed within striking distance in the final 20 minutes, but failed to ever draw closer than two points–that came at 44-42 with 14:26 remaining. Despite making just 54.8% of its free throws (47.8% after intermission), William Penn had enough in the tank for a third-straight trip to the MCC’s title matchup.

After AIB had trimmed the margin to three at 63-60 with 3:22 to go, Logan Alexander (Sr., Eddyville, Iowa, Physical Education) hit the second of two latter-half three-pointers (he finished with six points). The defense then finished the deal, stopping the higher seed on its last five trips down the floor (0-for-5 FG, one turnover).

Schwab paced all players with 27 points (9-for-13 FT) and nearly compiled a double-double with nine rebounds and three steals. Wells was next with 19 points and seven assists, while Guenther finished the win with 11 points.

Guenther’s three deep shots were part of a 10-3 Statesmen advantage from behind the arc that helped the navy and gold overcome a shocking 55-45 rebounding deficit. The Eagles stayed in the game with 22 offensive rebounds that resulted in a 23-8 mark in second-chance points.

Erik McGee (Sr., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Elementary Education) highlighted WPU’s rebounding effort with 14, while Nick Jeffries (Fr., Altoona, Iowa, Exercise Science) had eight alongside five points and two assists off the bench.

WPU also managed to turn a negative into a positive; the visitors had one more turnover (15-14), yet finished with a 12-9 advantage in points off mistakes.

Friday’s triumph also helped William Penn reach the 20-win plateau for the seventh time in the last nine seasons (12 times in school history).

“Playing without Shane was tough, but I thought Logan, Nick, and Jake picked it up well in his absence,” Head Coach John Henry said. “Our fans were awesome; it was basically a home game in Des Moines.”

Posted by on Feb 28 2015. Filed under College Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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