William Penn’s men’s basketball team already has this season’s Heart of America Athletic Conference regular season title.  Now the fifth-ranked Statesmen are going after the Conference Tournament crown.  They began that quest Thursday night (3/5) with a 90-75 win over Evangel at Penn Gymnasium. Statesmen Coach John Henry says Evangel didn’t make it easy for his team…with William Penn up by just one point at halftime.

“I thought Evangel came to play and I’m actually happy about that, because it was very, very challenging for us and I wanted a game that we had to grind out.  Actually, I thought our depth was what won the game because we had so much foul trouble in the first half, we played 12 kids, whereas Evangel left their starters in most of the game, played most of the minutes.  About halfway through the second half, I thought they were gassed and that’s when we eventually took a four point lead and made it 20.”

Josh Watkins scored all 14 of his points in the first half.  In the second half, Dexter Hood 16 of his team high 18 points, as the Statesmen improve to 28-3 on the season.  William Penn will host MidAmerica Nazarene Saturday night (3/7) at 7 in the Conference tournament semifinals.