William Penn Finishes First-Ever Conference Sweep of GVU

William Penn University Athletics

William Penn University Athletics

Oskaloosa–For the first time since becoming league rivals over a decade ago, the Statesmen women’s basketball team pulled off a season sweep of Grand View by winning Wednesday’s Heart of America Athletic Conference matchup 77-66.

William Penn (11-11, 8-7 Heart) trailed by one point entering the fourth, but strung together its best quarter of the year to accomplish its first season sweep of GVU since the navy and gold became league partners with the Vikings (9-12, 6-9 Heart) in the old Midwest Collegiate Conference in the 2001-2002 campaign.

The visitors started strong with an 18-7 lead (18-10 at the end of the first), but the Statesmen answered back with their own big period to knot the contest at 27-27 entering intermission.

The third stanza started much like the first with Grand View taking control. WPU had another big response, however, to cut the deficit to 46-45 with 10 minutes to go.

Still down one with about eight minutes remaining, Ashlee Harper (Sr., Los Angeles, Calif., Education) hit two of the biggest shots of the night with back-to-back trifectas as part of a 12-0 run that gave the Statesmen the lead for good. While it had an overall poor effort at the charity stripe (16-for-33), William Penn was exceptional down the stretch to ice the game (15-for-19 in the fourth).

Kadejah Young (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn., Physical Education) led all performers with 23 points, including a perfect 6-for-6 showing at the line. The senior also tallied five assists.

The Statesmen outshot the Vikings 47.4%-38.7% to overcome a 44-35 shortfall on the glass. WPU also forced GVU into 21 turnovers (15 for the hosts) which led to a 23-15 mark in points off mistakes.

Alyssa Phillips (Jr., Gurnee, Ill., Communications) narrowly missed a double-double with 19 points and nine rebounds; she blocked two shots as well.

Jenna Santi (Fr., Oak Creek, Wis., Elementary Education) also joined the double-digit club with 10 points off the bench. Harper scored nine points (all in the second half), while Destiny Spinner (Sr., Saginaw, Mich., Biology) had seven and Vashti Nwagbaraocha (Fr., Milwaukee, Wis., Exercise Science) added six (three steals).

The Statesmen also performed well behind the arc, going 7-for-18 with Young having the best effort at 3-for-4.

“We beat a very good team tonight,” Head Coach Willie Scott said. “We played with confidence and determination. Our second-half performance was very exciting to watch. We even made more free throws; we just want to keep getting better in that area. I am so proud of this team!”

Next Up: William Penn travels to Olathe, Kan. Saturday to face #8 MidAmerica Nazarene in Heart action at 2 p.m.

Posted by on Feb 4 2016. 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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