William Penn Drops Home Opener

Oskaloosa--The Statesmen men's basketball team hoped home-court advantage might fix its problems, but it was not enough in an 81-69 Heart of America Athletic Conference loss to Graceland Wednesday.

Finally playing its home opener after five bouts away from Penn Gymnasium, WPU (1-5, 0-2 Heart) was outshot 52.7%-45.2% and was outscored 17-6 at the free-throw line.  Unfortunately, on a night where the sides combined for 44 turnovers (23 for WPU, 21 for GU), the hosts lost the points off turnovers battle 26-8 to the Yellowjackets (4-1, 1-0 Heart).

Mike Elliott (So., Indianapolis, Ind., Business Management) opened the contest with back-to-back scores and the navy and gold led 6-4, but it quickly went south for WPU as it trailed 19-10 midway through the first stanza.

Down 44-32 at halftime, William Penn did not get blown out in its own gym and eventually trimmed the deficit to 10 at 63-53, but could get no closer.

Elliott was his team's scoring leader with 18 points on 8-for-15 shooting, while Jaz Farrell (Sr., Miramar, Fla., Undecided) was next with 16 points.  Both individual connected on a pair of three-pointers as the Statesmen finished 7-for-20 from behind the arc (35.0%).

Shug Sneed (Jr., Chicago, Ill., Computer Science) also hit double figures with 13 points, while Manny Hammonds (Fr., Des Moines, Iowa, New Media) just missed the mark with nine.

Cam Marshall (So., San Diego, Calif., Sports Management), who knocked down a pair of trifectas, guided the bench with eight points, while Ontario Chapman (Sr., Evanston, Ill., Psychology) corralled a WPU-high eight rebounds.  Overall, the hosts held a 33-32 edge in rebounding.

Next Up: William Penn travels to Parkville, Mo. Saturday to face Park in Heart play at 5 p.m.