{"id":822,"date":"2019-03-10T07:18:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-10T12:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kentuckysports.net\/?p=822"},"modified":"2020-11-03T09:01:28","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T14:01:28","slug":"statesmen-fall-in-semis-still-lock-up-bid-to-national-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kentuckysports.net\/?p=822","title":{"rendered":"Statesmen fall in semis, still lock up bid to national tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"13c398acb195b4bd84e993cb56669758\" data-index=\"6\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Above Post Ad 2 -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:638px;height:70px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-4024319323781499\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"8631827568\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>WPU Athletics<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Wade Steinlage, Assistant Athletic Director for Communications<\/em><\/p>\n<p><b><strong>PERU, Neb. &#8211;\u00a0<\/strong><\/b>The William Penn men\u2019s basketball team produced yet another big comeback, but could not finish it off in an 84-82 setback to No. 2 seed Peru State in the Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament Semifinals Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the setback, No. 3 seed and No. 16 nationally-ranked WPU (21-11) is still heading to the NAIA Division I National Championships from March 20-26.\u00a0 Top-seeded Benedictine helped out the navy and gold by defeating Clarke in the other semifinal and will host the 24th-ranked Bobcats (22-10) in Tuesday\u2019s championship game.\u00a0 Since one of the top two teams from the regular-season standings will take the tourney crown, William Penn\u2019s top-three finish is the league\u2019s third and final automatic qualification.<\/p>\n<p>WPU will find out who and when it plays at nationals during next Wednesday\u2019s Selection Show at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, Saturday witnessed yet another tough first half for the Statesmen.\u00a0 The visitors led 16-15 with 11:08 remaining in the stanza, but gave up 12 unanswered points.\u00a0 William Penn eventually went into the locker room down 51-35 as it was outshot 51.4-40.0 percent.<\/p>\n<p>WPU came out of the break a much different team, pulling to within five at 57-52 just 4:54 into the half.\u00a0 Although they never recaptured the edge, the Statesmen stayed within just seven the remainder of the contest.<\/p>\n<p>Down six inside of two minutes remaining, William Penn received buckets from <strong>Marlon Alcindor<\/strong>\u00a0(Sr., Queens, N.Y., Sociology) and\u00a0<strong>Omar Sherman\u00a0<\/strong>(Sr., Duncanville, Texas, Sociology) to make it a one-possession game with 30 seconds left.<\/p>\n<p>WPU then sent PSC to the line for a one-and-one opportunity.\u00a0 The front-end try was off-line and the Statesmen pulled down the rebound, setting themselves up to tie or win the game.\u00a0 Unfortunately, a driving layup by\u00a0<strong>Shamar Bailey-DeCoteau\u00a0<\/strong>(Jr., Toronto, Ontario, Undecided) would not drop and the navy and gold were ousted one game shy of the title game for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n<p>At game\u2019s end, the Statesmen were outshot 50.0%-47.0% and outrebounded 35-33.\u00a0 Although they were on the bottom side of the boards battle, they actually owned a 17-8 mark in second-chance points.<\/p>\n<p>The visiting crew also committed four more turnovers than the Bobcats (14-10), but was better at taking advantage with an 11-6 clip in points off turnovers.<\/p>\n<p>Sherman guided his team with 18 points, while <strong>Abrian Edwards<\/strong>\u00a0(Sr., Austin, Texas, Wellness and Recreation) was just one behind his fellow senior teammate with 17 points.\u00a0 Both individuals tallied three assists one game after Edwards broke the single-season school record for assists (now with 229).<\/p>\n<p>Alcindor and <strong>Darius Wheeler\u00a0<\/strong>(Sr., Jonesboro, Ga., Sports Administration) hit the double-digit mark as well with 14 points apiece.<\/p>\n<p>Bailey-DeCoteau and <strong>Eddie Daley<\/strong>( So., DeWitt, Mich., Sports Management) added six points each in the setback.<\/p>\n<p>Neither side was terribly strong at the line, but WPU was a bit better at 66.7% (12-for-18).\u00a0 Peru State held the edge from behind the arc, 33.3%-30.8%.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe got in a hole that we was just too big to get out of,\u201d Head Coach John Henry said.\u00a0 \u201cWe unfortunately ran out of time to come all the way back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are excited to return to nationals,\u201d Henry added.\u00a0 \u201cIt is always a lot of fun playing in Kansas City.\u201d<\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WPU Athletics Wade Steinlage, Assistant Athletic Director for Communications PERU, Neb. &#8211;\u00a0The William Penn men\u2019s basketball team produced yet another big comeback, but could not finish<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5,23],"tags":[88,248,125,34],"class_list":["post-822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mens-basketball","category-naia","category-top-news","tag-basketball","tag-omar-sherman","tag-peru-state","tag-william-penn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kentuckysports.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kentuckysports.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kentuckysports.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kentuckysports.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kentuckysports.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kentuckysports.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":825,"href":"https:\/\/kentuckysports.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions\/825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kentuckysports.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kentuckysports.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kentuckysports.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kentuckysports.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}