WPU Grits Out Win, Remains Unbeaten at Home
William Penn University Athletics
by Wade Steinlage
Oskaloosa–The Statesmen women’s basketball team returned home riding an eight-game win streak as they took on Culver-Stockton in a Heart of America Athletic Conference showdown on Wednesday.
William Penn (17-1, 12-1 Heart) battled through some lapses on the offensive end but came out of the match up with the victory over the Wildcats (10-8, 6-7 Heart), 55-47.
The game, on paper at least, was sure to be a high scoring affair with two high octane offenses clashing but as the game began to take shape, it was clear that was not going to be the case. Both offenses failed to get into any sort of rhythm early as it took the Statesmen until the 6:16 mark of the first quarter to scratch.
The offense never got clicking for the ladies as the game progressed but fortunately for them, the Wildcats couldn’t quite get it going either. However, the defense buckled down when it mattered most, in the fourth quarter, outscoring the visitors 13-5 and turned out to be enough to give the Statesmen their ninth consecutive win.
The navy and gold shot a respectable 46% from the floor but failed to get in a rhythm from beyond the arc, shooting just 28% from distance. C-SC struggled a bit from distance as well, shooting a dismal 22% from three and shot 41% from the floor.
Vashti Nwagbaraocha (Sr., Milwaukee, Wis., Exercise Science), coming off of a season-high 31 points on Monday, was held in check for most of the night, tallying 11 points and six rebounds. Kate Ylitalo (Jr., Maple Plain, Minn. Biology) stepped up for WPU when they needed a scorer logging a team-high 17 points (7-13 FG) and grabbing nine boards. Brenda Pennington (Jr., Hammond, Ind., Psychology) was influential down the stretch scoring eight of her 15 points in the final frame. She added a team-high six assists to her line to help lead William Penn to victory.
“Tonight was a strange game. I felt like we never could get into rhythm or flow until the fourth quarter.” Head Coach Steve Williamson said. “We battled and found a way to pull out a win, but we need to play better.”
Next Up: The Statesmen will be on the road on Saturday as they travel to Springfield, Mo. to take on Evangel with the match-up slated to being at 12 PM.
