Men's Basketball withstood (3) William Penn University's second-half charge Saturday evening, knocking off the Statesmen 97-91.
The upset win was sparked by a strong first half by the Ravens that turned into a 22-point lead early in the second half. As the high-powered Statesmen made a push, the Ravens continued to execute on the offensive end to seal the win.
Nysir Scott's bucket with 15 minutes to play gave the Ravens a 61-39 advantage. That's when Penn began their comeback attempt, cutting the lead to 8 points with 9:05 to play. Eric Krus drained a 3-pointer to push the Ravens back in front by 11 points. Again the Statesmen got the deficit to single digits, and again the Ravens answered, this time a basket by Jaiden Bristol.
Karmari Newman's 3-pointer with 3:51 to play finally pulled WPU to within single digits for good. The closest Penn got was 94-90, but Scott knocked down a pair of free throws to stem the Penn tide. The Ravens defense held Penn without a field goal for the remainder of the game to earn the win.
The Ravens were led by Matt Austin, who scored a game-high 27 points. Austin drilled 5-of-7 from deep, but also found success driving into the lane. Jaiden Bristol and Eric Krus both scored 12 points, Chris Jackson had 11 points and Tyson Cathy added 10 points as the Ravens shot 52 percent from the field and 43 percent from deep.
The first half couldn't have started much better for the Ravens as they grabbed a 13-3 lead 8 minutes into the action. Penn, averaging an NAIA-leading 103 points per game entering Saturday's contest, didn't make a field goal until the 13:33 mark and struggled to find any offense in the early going.
The Ravens built a 25-9 lead before the Statesmen answered with a 7-0 run to cut it to 25-16. However, Austin had a personal 6-0 run for the Ravens, drilling back-to-back 3-pointers to push the lead back up to 31-16 with 5 minutes left in the opening half.
The Ravens carried a 40-28 lead into halftime thanks to 53 percent shooting from the floor in the first half. The defensive effort was strong as well, holding the Statesmen to 31.4 percent shooting and pulling down two more rebounds than Penn. WPU entered the game averaging 50 rebounds per game, the best in the NAIA. The Statesmen had 20 boards compared to 22 for the Ravens in the first half.
WPU (17-2, 11-2 Heart) excelled on the boards in the second half, attacking misses with all five players to end the game with 50 rebounds. The Ravens did enough to hold onto their lead, though, helped in part by only giving up 11 turnovers.
The Ravens (11-9, 9-5 Heart) turn around quickly, facing Grand View University Monday, Jan. 27 at home.
