William Penn’s men’s basketball team has reached the semifinals of the Heart of America Conference tournament after beating MidAmerica Nazarene 98-68 Thursday night (2/25) at Penn Gymnasium.  Senior forward Kevion Blaylock talked about the win.

“We got off to a slow start, but we picked it up with our second team.  And then the first team came back and we picked it right back up where we left off.”

Blaylock had 15 points and ten rebounds to lead six Statesmen in double figures.  Junior Ty Autry also had a double-double with ten points and ten boards.  The second-ranked Statesmen are now 22-1 on the season; they’ll host Park Saturday night (2/27) at7 in the conference tournament semifinals.  Tickets are available online at StatesmenAthletics.com.

Thursday’s win wasn’t the only high point of the day for Kevion Blaylock.  He was named Heart of America Athletic Conference Player of the Year by averaging 17.6 points and 10.8 rebounds per game. Blaylock is also on the All-Conference first team.

” It means a lot to me, but I wouldn’t have got it without my team.  A pretty good individual accolade, but I’d rather get the team accolade and that’s winning the (national) championship.”

Blaylock is joined on the All-Conference first team by Statesmen guard Karmari Newman.  Second team All-Conference honors go to Statesmen guard Q Cager and center Nathan Gehring, while William Penn’s Eddie Daley, Josh Watkins and Ahmad Pender all earned honorable mention.

Those seven weren’t the only Statesmen to win Heart of America Athletic Conference recognition.  Statesmen Coach John Henry was named Coach of the Year after leading William Penn to the Conference regular season title and a national number 2 ranking.

“I’m very humbled by being selected Coach of the Year.  I have a good staff headed by Coach (Blake) Sandquist and everybody else and they do a lot of the work.  Unfortunately, my name is on the award, but it goes to my entire staff.”