WPU Opens Cattle Classic with Setback to Broncos

Seward, Neb.--Despite making over half of its shots, the Statesmen men's basketball team could not get by Hastings in the opening game of the Concordia Cattle Classic, falling 88-77 in non-conference play Friday.

William Penn (1-2) owned a 50.8% field-goal percentage and held a 36-34 edge in rebounding, but the Broncos (2-0) were also strong from the floor at 51.7%.  The game, however, was won at the free-throw line as WPU struggled to a 6-for-13 performance (46.2%, while Hastings finished at 20-for-26 (76.9%).

Jaz Farrell (Sr., Miramar, Fla., Undecided) was on fire all afternoon, but the junior played especially well early on as he single-handedly kept WPU in the game by scoring his team's first seven points and the first nine of 12 for the Statesmen.

Unfortunately, HC grabbed the lead for good at 13-12 with 14:15 to go in the first half.  William Penn was behind just 26-23 with seven-plus minutes left in the opening stanza, but could not slow down the Broncos and eventually trailed 47-36 at intermission.

The Statesmen came out of the locker room reenergized, though, and crept to within two at 53-51 with 13:33 still remaining.  Unfortunately, they would come no closer as they were outshot 52.0%-48.6% in the latter 20 minutes of play.

While the turnover battle was fairly even (19 for WPU, 18 for HC), the advantage in points off those mistakes was not as the navy and gold were outscored 24-13.

Courtesy of 12 offensive rebounds, William Penn managed to offset its deficit by holding a 19-14 edge in second-chance points.

Farrell paced the Statesmen with 25 points on 11-for-15 shooting (3-for-5 3-PT), while Shug Sneed (Jr., Chicago, Ill., Computer Science) was next in the scoring column with 15 points (6-for-8 FG).  Sneed just missed a double-double as he corralled a squad-best nine rebounds.

Larontae Mormant (Sr., Bloomington, Minn., Business Management) connected on all five of his shots to also hit double figures with 10 points, while Cam Marshall (So., San Diego, Calif., Sports Management) headlined the bench with eight points.

Jayvin Brown (So., Waldorf, Md., Business Management) stuffed the stat sheet with six points, seven rebounds, a team-high five assists, and three steals.  Sneed came up three thefts as well; WPU tallied 13 steals in the loss.

Lakaveon Odom (Sr., Memphis, Tenn., Sports Management) contributed five points as well.

Next Up: William Penn concludes the Cattle Classic Saturday with a matchup against host Concordia at 4 p.m.