William Penn Holds off Missouri Valley to Win Heart Opener

Marshall, Mo.--The William Penn women's basketball team survived a late charge from Missouri Valley as it claimed a 55-52 win in its Heart of America Athletic Conference opener Saturday.

WPU (3-3, 1-0 Heart) was outscored 18-10 by the Vikings (4-3, 0-1 Heart) in the final quarter, but made three big free throws down the stretch and force a tough three-pointer on the game's final possession to get the road victory.

The Statesmen, who owned a 37.3%-33.3% shooting edge, got out to a fast start as Morgan Terry (Sr., Cornersville, Tenn., Biology) scored the game's first seven points and the navy and gold took a 12-3 advantage.  William Penn kept the pedal to the floorboard, finishing the opening quarter with a 21-9 lead.

The Statesmen then took their scoring to the charity stripe with eight of their 12 second-quarter points coming off free throws and were up 33-19 after 20 minutes of play.

MVC came out of the locker room strong, though, with a 9-2 run, but the navy and gold turned their slump around as Emma Morts (Sr., Milford, Ill., Business Management) and Aiesha Feagins (Jr., Grand Prairie, Texas, Applied Mathematics) each tallied four points to push the advantage back to double figures at 45-34 heading into the fourth.

After a strong opening, Terry was slowed during the second and third periods, but opened the final stanza with WPU's first three points.  Unfortunately, the Vikings caught fire and used a 14-1 run to knot the bout at 48-48 with 3:56 remaining.

Terry then took over with a pair of buckets for a 52-50 edge entering the final minute of action, but the Vikings tied the game one final time with 33 ticks left.  Coming out of a timeout, Feagins drove to the hoop and was fouled on her layup attempt.  She knocked down both tries to make it 54-52 and on the ensuing possession, the Vikings lost possession and Journie Augmon (Sr., Las Vegas, Nev., Human Services) came up with the loose ball.

She rattled home the first attempt, but missed the second, leaving the door open just a bit for Missouri Valley.  Fortunately, the best the hosts could submit was a lengthy contested trifecta that did not even draw iron.

The Statesmen were dominant at the line, going 15-for-19, while Missouri Valley connected on just three of its six shots.

Although the Statesmen won the overall shooting battle, they were not very successful from the perimeter, finishing at only 11.1% (MVC was 24.1%).  William Penn also had a rough time on the glass, being outrebounded 43-35 (13-5 offensive in favor of MVC), which turned into a 10-0 margin in second-chance points for the home squad.

WPU, however, committed three fewer turnovers than the Vikings (13-16), which led to an 18-14 edge in points off turnovers for the victors.

Terry led all scorers with 18 points, while bench performers Feagins and Zantasia White (Sr., Lubbock, Texas, Secondary Education) just missed double digits with nine points each. Augmon tallied seven points, while Morts added six in addition to a squad-high eight rebounds.

"We came together as a team today, overcoming some good and bad on both ends of the floor," Head Coach Jenna Santi said.  "It is a great feeling to start off conference play at 1-0, but now we prepare for a competitive conference rival game against Grand View."

Next Up: William Penn will travel to Des Moines next Wednesday to take on Grand View in a Heart contest at 5:30 p.m.