Second Half Sinks William Penn Against Host Bulldogs

Seward, Neb.--The Statesmen men's basketball team could not come up with two solid halves as it fell 103-74 to Concordia to conclude the Cattle Classic Saturday.

#19 WPU (1-3), which was outshot 50.8%-37.5%, trailed by just one point at intermission, but failed to replicate that performance in the latter period.

Jayvin Brown (So., Waldorf, Md., Business Management) was terrific early with eight of William Penn's first 10 points as the navy and gold pulled out to a 10-3 advantage just over four minutes into the contest.

Unfortunately, the Bulldogs (2-0) answered with 16 consecutive points.  The Statesmen battled back, though, eventually pulling even at 32-32 on a layup by Shug Sneed (Jr., Chicago, Ill., Computer Science).  Less than two minutes later, Jaz Farrell (Sr., Miramar, Fla., Undecided) connected on a three-pointer to give the visitors a 40-37 edge.

WPU trailed 44-43 at halftime and was behind by only eight at 62-54 with 12:35 to go in regulation, but the rest of the afternoon belong to CUNE as the home squad pulled away for the win.

William Penn was outrebounded 48-43, but posted a 21-12 edge in offensive boards that resulted in a 17-10 edge in second-chance points.

Both sides committed 17 turnovers, but the visiting crew was better in taking advantage of the Bulldog errors with a 22-21 margin in points off mistakes.

Unfortunately, despite those advantages, the Statesmen could not overcome a large deficit at the free-throw line.  WPU was just 10-for-19 (52.6%), while Concordia ended up 30-for-41 (73.2%).  The navy and gold also lost the three-point battle, 11-4.

Sneed paced his squad with 21 points on 10-for-14 from the field; the junior also pulled down seven rebounds and blocked a pair of shots.  For his efforts, Sneed was named to the all-tournament team.

Brown was next with 19 points, while Farrell also hit double figures with 10.  Farrell dished out three assists, while Brown was the best Statesmen defender with five steals. 

Lakaveon Odom (Sr., Memphis, Tenn., Sports Management) headed WPU's bench with seven points as well.

Next Up: William Penn travels to Dubuque next Saturday to face Clarke in its Heart of America Athletic Conference opener at 4 p.m.