The Raven Men's Basketball team turned a halftime tie into an 84-70 win against the No. 2 William Penn University Statesmen at home on Monday.
The No. 12 Ravens (15-2, 11-0 Heart) remain at the top of the conference standings with the win, knocking off Penn (15-2, 9-2) in a battle of the top-two teams in the league. Hot second-half shooting propelled the Ravens past the Statesmen; the home squad shot 58.8 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes and an even 50 percent for the game. The Ravens also shot 36.4 percent from behind the 3-point line.
After the teams traded baskets early in the second half to remain level at 40-40, the Ravens went on a 14-3 run over the next three minutes to take control of the game. The run started with a 3-pointer by Thomas O'Connor and continued with back-to-back turnovers that resulted in transition baskets for Adam Kutney. Wills Wallrapp sank a 3 to put the Ravens up 54-43.
The lead later grew to 15 points when Chris Jackson was fouled on a layup and made the free throw for the old-fashioned 3-point play. A basket by Kutney with seven minutes to play put the Ravens up by 16 points, but the Statesmen chipped away at the lead, pulling to within 10 at 74-64.
The Ravens lead never fell below double-digits, though. The exclamation mark came at 1:01 when Colby Nickels buried a 3-pointer to put the Ravens back up by 16 points.
Kutney had a game-high 19 points while also pulling down nine rebounds. O'Connor had 14 points, Nickels had 13 and four assists, Eric Krus tossed in 12 points and picked up four blocks on the defensive end, and Jaiden Bristol scored 9 points, grabbed six boards and had four assists.
WPU entered the contest averaging 48 rebounds per game, but the Ravens out-rebounded the Statesmen 36-33. The Ravens had a 17-11 assist-to-turnover mark while the Statesmen were on the negative end of the ratio at 7-13.
The win gives the Ravens a two-game cushion over the Statesmen in the standings at the mid-way point in the conference season, and it was their 14th-straight win, overall. Monday's win was also the first time the Ravens have defeated William Penn since the Statesmen joined the Heart of America Athletic Conference.
Next up for the Ravens is a road contest at Missouri Valley College on Wednesday, Jan. 16.
