Rally Falls Short Against #5 Morningside
William Penn Lady Statesmen vs Morningside.
Oskaloosa–The William Penn basketball team recovered from first-half struggles to give #5 Morningside quite a battle, eventually succumbing 69-60 in non-conference action Saturday.
The Lady Statesmen (2-3) fell into a quick hole and eventually trailed by as much as 23 at 40-17 with 4:09 left until the break. The hosts scored eight of the next nine points, however, to trail just 41-25 at intermission.
The William Penn rally resumed after halftime, narrowing the deficit to just one point twice near the midway point. The navy and gold unfortunately never took the lead, but did stick around to the very end.
Four late unanswered points cut the Morningside edge to three at 61-58 with 1:49 remaining. The Mustangs (3-0) came up with a three-pointer, though, and then took advantage of a Lady Statesmen turnover with two more free throws to seal the victory.
While the loss was disappointing, it has some silver lining as it was by far the slimmest win by Morningside so far this season. The Mustangs’ first two victories have been by 51 (over Viterbo) and 30 (over #8 Grand View).
The Lady Statesmen were outshot 39.3%-35.9% and outrebounded 42-39. William Penn only committed one more turnover than Morningside (16-15).
Brittany May (Jr., Gladstone, Ore., Biology) guided her team with 15 points off the bench courtesy of five three-pointers. Orielle Thomas (Sr., Waynesville, Mo., Physical Education) was also effective with a double-double of 13 points and 15 rebounds.
Morgan Evans (Sr., Creston, Iowa, Industrial Technology) joined the double-digit club as well with ten points, while Katie Golomski (So., Milwaukee, Wis., Psychology) hit three trifectas for nine points.
Golomski also stole four passes and Sarah Martin (Sr., Anthem, Ariz., Physical Education) tallied a team-best five assists.
“We started out really sluggish in the first half,” Head Coach Mike Brown said. “I am proud of our ladies for battling back, but we know we could have beaten a very good Morningside team tonight if we played our game the entire 40 minutes.”
“We look very good at times, but we are struggling with consistency,” Brown added. “I am confident we will resolve this issue, but hopefully we figure it out sooner than later.”
Next: William Penn travels to Kansas next weekend to play two programs from the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference. The Lady Statesmen face Bethel at 6 p.m. on Friday and then meet McPherson at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
