WPU’s Year Over in Quarterfinal Loss to Clarke
William Penn Women’s Athletics
Dubuque–The Statesmen women’s basketball team could not avenge two regular-season losses to Clarke in an 81-67 season-ending defeat in the Midwest Collegiate Conference Tournament Quarterfinals Thursday.
#5 seed William Penn (11-19) was tremendous on the offensive glass (17 second-chance points), but could not parlay that into a second-consecutive postseason upset of the fourth-seeded Crusaders (18-12).
Unfortunately, a 54.2%-38.1% shooting deficit was too much to overcome. The visitors scored the first bucket of the night, but CU answered with ten straight and never trailed again. A 9-2 run by William Penn later in the first stanza narrowed the margin to one, but again the hosts responded and led 50-31 at the break.
Post-halftime play was slightly in Clarke’s favor as WPU could not draw any closer than 15 points as the collegiate careers of seniors Katie Golomski (Milwaukee, Wis., Psychology & Sociology), Vanessa Kieres (Chicago, Ill., Exercise Science), Jessie Kreuser (Mendota Heights, Minn., Physical Education), and Janay Pritchett (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Biology) came to a close. Golomski and Pritchett both concluded their time at William Penn with over 1,000 points.
Pritchett topped all participants with 22 points off the bench, going 8-for-15 from the floor. She also posted four steals. Kreuser was next with 12 points, while Golomski (three assists) and Kieres (seven rebounds) paced their squad in other areas.
Alyssa Phillips (So., Gurnee, Ill., Communications) also got to double digits with ten points and Asia Cochran (So., Belleville, Ill., Physical Education) added seven points.
The Statesmen had a 39-38 rebounding edge and committed three fewer turnovers (16-19), but was outscored 24-16 at the line.
“We say goodbye to four senior players and one senior student assistant today,” Head Coach Mike Brown said. “It was a tough way to send these five quality people out, but their contributions to the program will stand the test of time.”
