Statesmen Take Down Culver-Stockton to Open League Action
William Penn University Athletics
by Wade Steinlage
Canton, Mo.–The William Penn women’s basketball team weathered an early storm and then a late rally to start Heart of America Athletic Conference action with a 72-65 road win over Culver-Stockton Wednesday.
WPU (4-0, 1-0 Heart) remained perfect by outshooting the Wildcats (2-2, 0-1 Heart) 38.2%-35.1% and holding a 40-36 edge in rebounding. The hosts countered with a proficient effort at the line (15-for-17), but the navy and gold were no slouches either, going 24-for-33.
C-SC pulled out to a 13-5 edge in the opening minutes and still led 16-9 with three minutes to go in the first quarter, but William Penn closed with the final seven points to end the period knotted at 16-16.
The first three points of the second stanza went to the home crew, but the Statesmen rallied with nine unanswered and never trailed again. The visitors held a 19-10 edge in the quarter and entered intermission up 35-26.
The Statesmen advantage ballooned to double digits–in fact getting as high as 16–before the Wildcats slowly began to creep back into the battle.
William Penn led 53-42 edge with 10 minutes to go and was still on top 63-54 with just 3:27 left. Culver-Stockton refused to let the visitors take the win easily, though, trimming the margin to four in the final minute. The Statesmen, who, as aforementioned, did a lot of their damage at the charity stripe, were fortunately able to secure the victory by knocking down five of their last six free throws.
Kate Ylitalo (So., Maple Plain, Minn., Biology) has not always had great success at the stripe in the past, but put that behind her Wednesday with a perfect 8-for-8 showing as part of a game-high 21 points. She also excelled on the boards by pacing all participants with a career-high 11 rebounds for her first-ever double-double.
Vashti Nwagbaraocha (Sr., Milwaukee Wis., Exercise Science) just fell shy of joining her teammate in that group as she scored 15 points with nine rebounds.
Brenda Pennington (Jr., Hammond, Ind., Psychology), who hit all four of her free throws in the waning seconds (5-for-6 overall), was in double digits as well with 13 points.
Makenzie Pezley (So., Keokuk, Iowa), with seven points, and Autumn Voigt (Jr., Clintonville, Wis.), with five points, were also productive Wednesday.
“It is great getting our first Heart win on the road tonight,” Head Coach Steve Williamson said. “We struggled early on, but I thought our bench came in and gave us a spark with hustle plays and great effort on defense.”
Next Up: William Penn returns to Oskaloosa Saturday to host Evangel in Heart action at 12 p.m.
