OSKALOOSA, Iowa – Men's Basketball pushed No. 8-ranked William Penn University to overtime on Thursday night in the Heart Tournament Quarterfinals inside the Penn Gymnasium.
The top-seeded Statesmen outscored the eighth-seeded Ravens 8-6 in overtime to escape to the semifinal round with a 90-88 win.
After William Penn connected on a pair of free throws with 5 seconds remaining in the game, Sam Ungashick drove the length of the floor and was found with under a second remaining to play. He converted both to tie the score at 82-all and send the game into overtime.
The 88 points scored by Benedictine marked their highest total of the season, passing their previous high of 86 points.
By the midpoint of the first half, the two teams combined to score 30 points as the game was knotted at 15-all. That tie came after Benedictine limited William Penn to just 7 points with 11:16 remaining in the half.
Over the final 10 minutes of the half, the two teams combined to score another 46 points, only this time the Ravens were able to outscore the Statesmen 27-19 to take a 43-34 lead into halftime.
Benedictine held William Penn scoreless from the field for just over the first five minutes of the second half, which allowed them to push their lead to as much as 12 points.
In their previous meeting inside the Ralph Nolan Gymnasium, William Penn exploded from beyond the arc in the second half. That night they connected on a season-high 19 3-pointers, hitting 12 In the second half. Thursday night, they finished the game with a total of 7 and made just 3 in the second half, which allowed Benedictine to maintain their lead.
After pushing their lead back up to 11 points with just over 8 minutes left in the game, the Ravens used timely 3-pointers and an improved effort at the free throw line to maintain their lead. A 3-pointer from Anthony Hall gave the Ravens a 4-point lead with 2:33 remaining in the game, which proved to be the final field goal of regulation for the Ravens.
In the overtime period, all 6 points for the Ravens came at the free-throw line as Ungashick went 6 of 6.
After going 1 of 5 at the free throw line in the first half, the Ravens went 18 of 23 in the second half and overtime but it was enough to upset the Statesmen.
Ungashick led four Ravens in double figures with a game-high 21 points as he went 11 of 13 at the free throw line. Jayden Temme finished with 17 points, Braden Belt scored 14 points and Ahmad Louis scored 13 points. That quartet accounted for 11 of the Ravens 13 3-pointers with Hall adding the remaining two.
Benedictine finished with 7 turnovers, one off their season-low set against Park back on Dec. 14. The Ravens finish the season at 12-17 overall.
