Statesmen Escape Evangel 89-87
William Penn University Athletics
by Wade Steinlage
Springfield, Mo.–The William Penn men’s basketball team nearly blew a huge lead, but held on in the final seconds to snap a mini losing streak as it defeated Evangel 89-87 in Heart of America Athletic Conference action Saturday.
#2 WPU (16-3, 10-3 Heart), which entered having lost two in a row, went wire-to-wire in its longest road trip of the year, but almost gave up the lead at the buzzer for the second time in four days.
The visitors outshot the Crusaders (3-14, 2-10 Heart) 46.3%-45.5% and owned a 41-36 rebounding edge. They were on their way to an easy win, leading 39-26, but stretched the advantage to 24 with 11 unanswered points. EU started its comeback right away, however, tallying eight straight to make the halftime score 50-34.
The margin quickly shrunk to three at 60-57 with 12:32 still on the clock. The Statesmen had an answer for each and every one of Evangel’s runs, though, pushing the lead back to 10 twice.
Up just three at 83-80, William Penn eventually made it a three-possession game at 89-82 with 1:52 remaining. Unfortunately, the Crusaders scored the next two times they had the ball, while WPU came up empty on its end.
The Statesmen had a chance to salt it away in the final seconds, but committed a turnover and then fouled Evangel. One of two EU free throws were then made to make it 89-87 with 6.5 seconds to go. WPU’s long inbounds was intercepted and secured with only 2.5 ticks left. EU then launched a long pass of its own that was also picked off, but a tie-up was called and the Crusaders retained possession.
With the ball now under the Evangel basket–much too reminiscent of WPU’s loss to Culver-Stockton on Wednesday–the pass was errant and TaJuan Johnson (Jr., Chicago, Ill., Business Management) fortunately picked it up to preserve the win.
Once again without Omar Sherman (Sr., Duncanville, Texas) and Mario Manuel (So., Des Moines, Iowa, Sports Management), the Statesmen leaned on Eddie Daley (So., DeWitt, Mich., Sports Management) in the post and he delivered with another monster double-double of 19 points and 15 rebounds (seven offensive) in addition to three blocks.
Abrian Edwards (Sr., Austin, Texas, Kinesiology) did most of the scoring damage with 30 points on 11-for-15 shooting. He was also 7-for-8 at the free-throw line, while William Penn had a productive outing at the stripe at 82.6% (19-for-23).
Marlon Alcindor (Sr., Queens, N.Y., Sociology) scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half, while Johnson also hit double figures with 13 points. Q Cager (Fr., Hopkinsville, Ky., Sports Management) was back on the hardwood, but battled foul trouble and produced just four points and three assists in eight minutes of work.
The Statesmen committed 11 turnovers, compared to just nine for the Crusaders, but WPU held a 5-0 margin in points off mistakes. The victors outscored Evangel 20-15 in second-chance points as well. Neither side had much success from behind the arc, including William Penn going just 8-for-27 (29.6%).
“We had to hold on for the win, but all road wins, no matter who they are against, are awesome,” Head Coach John Henry said. “Eddie had another huge game and AB was clutch. I really thought everybody played well today. It is tough to travel seven hours with bad weather, in a tough environment, and still win, but we pulled it off.”
Next Up: William Penn travels to Des Moines next Thursday to face Grand View in Heart play at 7:30 p.m.
