Statesmen Miss Golden Opportunity in Loss to Tigers
William Penn University Athletics
Oskaloosa–The William Penn men’s basketball team failed to take advantage against a slumping program as Iowa Wesleyan knocked off the navy and gold 91-83 in Midwest Collegiate Conference play Saturday.
William Penn (14-12, 9-5 MCC) was fortunate, however, to remain in second place in the league as Ashford was also upset by Clarke.
For at least one half, the Statesmen managed to survive a weak shooting performance, leading 38-36 at the break. The hosts were outshot 51.6%-37.8% in the first 20 minutes.
The Tigers (11-10, 6-8 MCC), who had lost eight of their last 11 contests, continued to shoot well in the second stanza (54.5%-36.9% overall edge), hitting 57.1% of their tries after intermission to avenge their 93-91 home loss in January.
Little went right for the hosts, yet they stayed somewhat close, courtesy of 28 turnovers by the visitors (21 for WPU). Those mistakes were turned into 26 points. Both teams were miserable from the charity stripe as well (IWC was 14-of-29, while WPU was 15-of-27).
Alan Douglas (Sr., Champaign, Ill., Lakeland CC) guided his team with 19 points on Senior Day. The guard was 8-of-14 from the field, while Arman Rasul (Jr., Chicago, Ill., Illinois-Chicago) also shot well (9-of-15) for 18 points.
Rasul, who had a squad-best four steals, also tied Blake Walker (So., Rose Garden, Ga., Campbell HS) with eight rebounds, but William Penn lost the battle of the glass, 53-44.
Walker tallied 13 points and seven assists, while Taylor Stoutner (Jr., Keota, Keota HS) joined the double-figure club with 12 points.
Keith Steffeck (Jr., Marion, Marion HS) and Austin Emerson (Jr., Des Moines, Southwestern CC) added eight points each in the setback. Steffeck blocked three shots.
Perimeter success was also absent with the Statesmen hitting just 6-of-33 three-point attempts. Again, the Tigers left the door open, though, by finishing just 5-of-18 from downtown.
“I am extremely disappointed in tonight’s performance,” Head Coach John Henry said. “This is a very demoralizing loss. Everything that could have gone wrong did. We will find out what we are made of next week.”
Next: The Statesmen travel to Des Moines Wednesday to face Grand View in MCC play at 7:30 p.m.
