Hansen Hits Eight Trifectas as WPU Upsets #11 Benedictine
William Penn University Athletics
Atchison, Kan.–The Statesmen women’s basketball team entered having already won three times against top-25 programs, but Wednesday’s fourth victory was arguably its biggest as William Penn knocked off #11 Benedictine 73-69 in Heart of America Athletic Conference action.
Led by 26 points from Sarah Hansen (Jr., Kewanee, Ill., Psychology and Human Services), WPU (17-12, 15-10 Heart) outshot the Ravens (22-7, 21-4 Heart) by a 47.9%-40.4% tally. The visitors, paced by Hansen’s incredible 8-for-10 effort from behind the arc, made 55.0% of their three-pointers and capped the game with a 16-for-17 free-throw effort.
William Penn has not had the best track record in tight contests this year, but had another chance to flip the script as it led 34-32 at halftime and then trailed just 50-47 entering the fourth quarter. The navy and gold scored six of the first seven points of the last period, but then witnessed BC go on a similar run to go back ahead 60-56 with 4:12 left.
Hansen answered with a long ball to pull her team within one and Vashti Nwagbaraocha (So., Milwaukee, Wis., Exercise Science) finished off a steal at the other end to tie the contest at 61-61 at the 2:37 mark. Nwagbaraocha, who joined Hansen in double figures with 12 points, finished with four steals as the Statesmen recorded 12 overall. WPU committed three more turnovers than Benedictine at 18-15, but was more advantageous with a 16-11 mark in points off turnovers.
Hansen, who was one three-ball shy of the school single-game record, then knocked down her final two trifectas to put WPU up by multiple possessions inside the final minute. The visiting squad eventually iced the win by hitting all six of its free throws in the last 35 ticks.
Keshunda Williams (Fr., Chicago, Ill., Business Management just missed double figures with nine points, while also matching ShaVonn Watkins (Sr., Peoria, Ill., Physical Education) with five assists. Watkins and Asia Roper (Sr., Aurora, Colo., Psychology) added five points apiece in the win.
The Statesmen claimed the impressive road ‘W’ despite a quiet night for leading scorer Alyssa Phillips (Sr., Gurnee, Ill., Communications). The senior, who played just 12 minutes due to both foul trouble and WPU’s small lineup strategy, was held to just four points (2-for-3 FG) and four rebounds.
Both sides corralled 30 rebounds with Nwagbaraocha topping her team with seven rebounds.
“This was a great win!” Head Coach Willie Scott said. “We decided to go with a small lineup and fortunately our guards responded well. I told our team if our bench could outscore theirs, we would win (WPU’s bench bettered BC’s 24-8). This was a huge effort from the entire team.”
“Sarah put on an amazing shooting performance tonight,” Scott added. “Hopefully this will give us a confidence lift going into the conference tournament.”
Next Up: William Penn returns to Oskaloosa Saturday for Senior Day as its wraps up the regular season against Missouri Valley in Heart action at 2 p.m.
