William Penn Holds off Culver-Stockton in Regular-Season Finale
Canton, Mo.–After a slow start, both teams caught fire and it was the Statesmen men’s basketball team that yet again won a tight one, defeating Culver-Stockton 95-90 in Heart of America Athletic Conference play Saturday.
WPU (27-1, 18-1 Heart), which has now won 16 games in a row, scored 60 points in the second half to finish the season sweep of the Wildcats (14-14, 5-14 Heart). The Statesmen will resume their season next Wednesday, hosting MidAmerica Nazarene in the Heart Tournament Quarterfinals at 7 p.m.
The visitors, who outshot C-SC 50.8%-46.5%, led nearly the entire way, but the hosts, playing in their final game of the season (did not qualify for postseason), gave the Statesmen a fight to the end.
The first-half advantage was in the mid-single digits for most of the first half with a layup by Malik Edwards (Fr., Drexel Hill, Pa., Business Management) at the 3:31 mark putting the navy and gold up nine at 33-24. Unfortunately, Culver-Stockton closed strong and WPU led just 35-33 at intermission.
The Wildcats refused to let William Penn gain any separation through the early minutes of the second half. In fact, C-SC actually earned its first lead of the afternoon at 58-57 with 12:12 still remaining.
However, two minutes later, with the Statesmen now leading by two at 62-60, Karmari Newman (Sr., Detroit, Mich., Digital Communication) and Ahmad Pender (Sr., Chicago, Ill., Wellness and Recreation) both connected on three-pointers. The long balls were part of a 14-2 run in just over two minutes of action.
The Statesmen thenmade sure there was no late-game heroics from the Wildcats, hitting 12 of their last 14 free throws. Overall, WPU was 22-for-28 at the line.
William Penn overcame 12 C-SC trifectas as well as three more turnovers (9-6) than its foe. The victors were, however, stronger on the glass with a 42-31 edge in rebounds.
Four players reached double figures with Kevion Blaylock (Sr., Houston, Texas, Information Technology) pacing the team with 21 points. Q Cager (Sr., Hopkinsville, Ky., Wellness and Recreation), though, stole the show with a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Cager was 7-for-13 from the field and 5-for-6 from the line, but more importantly eclipsed the 1,000-point mark in his career (currently at 1,009 points). He is the third Statesmen to reach the plateau this year, joining Blaylock and Newman, and is the 24th player in program history with the distinction.
Newman was next with 17 points, while Frederick Jackson (Sr., Killeen, Texas, Interdisciplinary Studies) contributed 15 points off the bench.
Chanze Cruesoe (So., St. Louis, Mo., Business Management) and Josh Watkins (Sr., Chicago, Ill., Sports Management) were good for six points, and Pender ended with five. Blaylock assisted on six of WPU’s buckets.
