Regular Season Closes with Road Loss to Clarke
William Penn Women’s Athletics
Dubuque–The Statesmen women’s basketball team failed to gain momentum going into the league tourney after falling 86-68 to Clarke in Midwest Collegiate Conference play Saturday.
William Penn (11-18, 4-8 MCC) will open up the MCC Tournament as the #5 seed, returning to Dubuque next Thursday to meet the fourth-seeded Crusaders at 7 p.m.
The Statesmen also fell to Clarke 93-82 in Oskaloosa on January 28.
The visitors were solid early, leading 9-5, but the Crusaders (17-12, 8-4 MCC) went on an 8-2 run and never trailed again. Due to 33.3% shooting and other factors, the navy and gold trailed 42-32 at the break.
CU grew the advantage to nine in the latter period before an 11-4 Statesmen run narrowed the margin to two at 54-52. The hosts were much too strong down the stretch, however, with a 22-7 streak that secured the victory.
Jessie Kreuser (Sr., Mendota Heights, Minn., Physical Education) was 8-for-13 from the floor for a squad-best 23 points. She was also one of four players with two steals as Clarke was forced into 19 turnovers. Those mistakes were turned into 26 Statesmen points.
Janay Pritchett (Sr., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Biology) was also in double figures with 16 points in addition to four assists.
Both teams made more than half of their second-stanza attempts (WPU was 53.8%) and the Crusaders finished with a 54.5%-41.9% shooting edge.
Alyssa Phillips (So., Gurnee, Ill., Communications) produced nine points, a team-high eight rebounds, and four assists, while Vanessa Kieres (Sr., Chicago, Ill., Exercise Science) had seven points and Katie Golomski (Milwaukee, Wis., Psychology & Sociology) tallied six.
WPU could not make up for deficits in rebounding (37-28) and free throws (19-11).
“We gave it a good fight,” Head Coach Mike Brown said. “We started well, but could not finish layups and way too many back-to-back turnovers took us completely out of the game. Jessie had a big second half and Janay was solid all day. Those two just needed more help on the offensive end.”
“Hopefully we still have some fight left in us for tournament play as the new season starts next week,” Brown added.
