Furious Comeback Comes Up Short Against Benedictine
Atchison, Kan.–A furious comeback attempt from the Statesmen came up just a bit short as they fell behind early and were unable to rebound, taking a loss to last seasons’ Heart of America Athletic Conference Champion Benedictine.
The loss for William Penn (17-2, 11-2 Heart) snapped an 11-game winning streak. Benedictine (11-9, 9-5 Heart) benefitted from a great shooting night as it converted on 52% of its shots from the field while the visitors shot just 41% from the field and 30% from deep.
Benedictine scored nine of the first 10 points of the ball game opening up on a 9-1 run as the Statesmen got off to a sluggish start, converting their first field goal at the 13:28 mark. The hosts proceeded to open up a 16-point lead, 25-9, with 7:37 left in the half. The Statesmen cut the lead to single-digits three times, including cutting it down to nine with 26 seconds left in the half before a Raven three-pointer pushed the lead back to 12 as the score heading into the half was 40-28.
The beginning of the second half didn’t go William Penn’s way as they once again got off to a slow start and Benedictine opened up its largest lead of the game of 22 at the 14:57 mark. From there however, the Statesmen started to find their groove and proceeded to go on a 21-7 run to cut the lead to 68-60 with plenty of time remaining at 9:05. A three-pointer by Dexter Hood (Sr., Tuscaloosa, Ala.) made the game very interesting as it cut the Raven lead to just 86-81 with 3:21 left. Both teams traded shots as the game moved into the final minute of play as a pair of free-throws courtesy of Kevion Blaylock (Jr., Houston, Texas, Information Technology) cut the lead to 94-90, the closest the squad had been since the 15-minute mark of the first half. A foul call on the other end just moments later sent the Ravens to the line to which they converted on a pair on free-throws to push the lead back to six. Following a miss from deep from the Statesmen they were forced to play the foul game and the Ravens were able to seal a 97-91 victory.
The loss snapped an 11-game winning streak for the Statesmen.
Blaylock and Nathan Gehring (Jr., Waukee, Iowa) both had huge double-doubles and played a major role in the comeback effort. Blaylock had a season-high 26 points and 16 rebounds while Gehring had 17 points and 10 boards. Malyk Thomas (Jr., Copperas Cove, Texas, Sports Management) played valuable minutes off the bench as he poured in 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Karmari Newman (Jr., Detroit, Mich., Digital Communication) contributed 10 points as well.
Next Up: William Penn will travel to Lamoni, Iowa to take on Graceland on Monday.
