OSKALOOSA — The William Penn men’s basketball team scored 53 second-half points to erase both a double-digit deficit and painful year-long memories as it defeated #8 seed Rio Grande 73-61 Wednesday in the NAIA Men’s Basketball National Championship Second Round, presented by Ballogy.

The top-seeded Statesmen (30-3) of the Cramer Quadrant unfortunately did not look like the top team through 20 minutes in Penn Gymnasium, trailing 29-19 after shooting just 26.9% from the field and committing 13 turnovers.

To the squad’s credit, it did not throw in the proverbial towel, but instead regrouped inside the locker room and flipped the script in the second period, hitting 57.1% of its shots and giving the ball up just once.  In the end, WPU outscored URG 54-32 in the latter period, turning an 11-point deficit into a 12-point victory.

With the win, the Statesmen advance to the Final Site of Kansas City, Mo. where they will meet #4 seed Montana Tech (28-4) in the Round of 16.  The game will be played next Monday at 7 p.m. in Municipal Auditorium.

In a first half that William Penn players and fans will wish to forget, the navy and gold missed their opening three field goals before Malik Edwards (Fr., Drexel Hill, Pa., Business Management) knocked down a three-pointer, the lone trifecta for the hosts before break.  Fortunately, as poor as WPU was from the field, URG (25-7) was not much better, shooting just 37.1% overall.

The Statesmen tallied the first five points of the evening and stayed on top at 12-11, but the Red Storm eventually caught them and led for the final 11:19 of the first half.  A three-pointer with 2:17 left made it 29-18 in favor of Rio Grande, the largest edge of the night for the lower seed.  Eddie Daley (Grad., DeWitt, Mich., Master’s of Organizational Leadership) made a free throw a few seconds later, accounting for the final point of an extremely low-scoring opening stanza.

Traditionally a second-half team that makes great adjustments at intermission, WPU apparently had the pep talk of all pep talks as it was a completely different squad for the latter 20 minutes.

Similar to the opening period, the navy and gold missed their first few attempts, but then Chanze Cruesoe (Jr., St. Louis, Mo., Business Management) found Daley for a dunk and the proverbial switch was flipped.  Although it made up just three points in the margin column through the first five-plus minutes, it was evident that the Statesmen were going to be different in the second period.

Still up 35-28 with 14:57 to go, the Red Storm called a timeout to try and settle their nerves.  It did little to affect the outcome as Edwards made three consecutive buckets, while Muneer Newton (Fr., Philadelphia, Pa., Business Management) gave the hosts the lead back for good at 36-35 on a baseline jumper with 12:17 still remaining.

CJ Washington (Jr., Houston, Texas, Interdisciplinary Studies) and Daniel Autrey (Jr., Detroit, Mich., Business Management) then hit back-to-back three-pointers as Penn Gymnasium erupted in cheers with William Penn finishing off a 14-0 run over the span of 4:02.

Rio Grande pulled within five on two occasions, but both semi-rallies were met with thunderous responses as the Statesmen would not be denied by another River States Conference foe.  A season ago, IU Kokomo, also of the River States, defeated WPU in the Second Round.

At game’s end, William Penn, which bucked tradition and decided to not cut down the nets, outshot the Red Storm 44.3%-33.3%, including a 33.3%-29.6% three-point edge.  The victors were just 60.9% from the free-throw line, but made five more shots (14-9) than URG.

Despite committing four more turnovers (14-10), WPU was better at taking advantage with a 16-11 margin in points off mistakes.

Finally, WPU’s 13-9 edge in offensive rebounds (49-34 overall) actually resulted in no change to the scoreboard as both teams scored 11 second-chance points.

Edwards, just as the team did, started slow, but was exceptional down the stretch as he scored 23 points on 8-for-13 shooting; the sophomore was 5-for-5 at the line.

While 12 Statesmen touched the hardwood Wednesday, nearly all of the scoring came from the starting five.  Daley was next with a double-double of 12 points and 15 rebounds; the graduate student also blocked three shots.  Newton matched Daley’s double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds, while Cruesoe was close to his own with 11 points and seven assists.  Washington managed six points and seven boards as well.

Autrey led the bench with six points, while DJ Purnell (So., Minneapolis, Minn., Business Management) chipped in four more.  Both individuals played significant double-digit minutes, providing valuable rest for their teammates in a game where the Statesmen were without normal starter James Pennington (Sr., Calumet City, Ill., Sports Management), who was injured in Tuesday’s win over Saint Xavier, and Rodrigo Soares (So., Dallas, Texas, Sports Management), who played just a few minutes Wednesday before also suffering an injury.

The Round of 16 appearance is the eighth for William Penn since the 2012-2013 season.

“This team and this season are very special,” Head Coach John Henry said.  “This group has an amazing William Penn story and will be remembered forever.  Playing without James Pennington and Rodrigo Soares and still winning, that’s what a great team does.”

“Special thanks to Nik Rule, Bailey Rimes, Beau Rabedeaux, and all of the William Penn employees and students who helped to host this event,” Henry added.  “William Penn was a class-act host; this was a fun couple of days.”