DES MOINES — In all rights, their season should have been over before Sunday night, but after two colossal upsets, the William Penn men’s basketball team was just 40 quality minutes away from a national tournament berth.
Unfortunately, the clock hit midnight on Cinderella as No. 6 seed Penn fell 85-71 to top-seeded Grand View in the Midwest Collegiate Conference Tournament Championship Game.
Penn closes its year at 22-11, while No. 16 Grand View will continue its campaign at the NAIA Division II Men’s Basketball National Championships in Point Lookout, Mo., from March 10-16.
The Statesmen played even with the Vikings for the first few minutes, tied at 4-4, but then the door was slammed in their collective faces. Grand View went on a 22-2 run and never led by less than double digits again, eventually holding a 47-23 lead at the break.
After being outshot 61.3 percent to 20.7 percent in the first period, Penn fought valiantly to make it respectable in the second stanza, shooting 54.5 percent for a finally tally of 38.7 percent. Unfortunately, the Vikings (25-7) also performed well from the field after intermission, making 52.4 percent of their shots and never really gave Penn much hope.
The Statesmen, who had knocked off the No. 3 and No. 2 seeds earlier in the week, were behind by as much as 26 points before slowing chipping away at the deficit.
Still down by 20 points with 9:15 remaining, Penn scored 14 of the next 18 points to get as close as 10 at 70-60 with 3:03 left in regulation.
Grand View put the dagger in Penn’s proverbial heart by connecting on back-to-back buckets to cruise to the win.
In their final collegiate contest, the duo of Joel Stout and Kris Miller did all they could to extend their careers one more game.
Stout, who had just three first-half points, erupted for 20 in the second period to finish with a game-high 23 points. The senior finishes his career with 1,061 points, good for 15th all-time in program history.
Miller added 19 points and leaves Penn high on numerous rankings, most notably second on the career scoring list with 1,722 points. The senior also departs as first in steals (227) and three-pointers attempted (613). His 645 points during this campaign is also the second-highest tally in Penn history.
Travis Iverson posted eight points off the bench and tied Caleb Stout with seven rebounds. Stout contributed four points on the evening.
Jesse DeGeest produced six points in the loss, while Walter Herron had just four points with six rebounds and the team’s lone block.
Miller paced Penn with three assists, while Caleb Stout had a team-best two steals.
The loss ends the careers of six seniors, who during their careers, helped Penn to unprecedented success. Over the past four seasons, the program has gone 97-36 overall (.729 winning perentage.), highlighted by two MCC regular-season and tournament titles, two trips to nationals, and three appearances in the MCC Tournament finals. The group includes Terry Coleman, DeGeest, Joseph Greenhouse, Miller, Joel Stout and Caleb Stout.
“I want to thank our senior class for a tremendous four years,” Statesmen coach John Henry said. “They overcame a lot to get to this point and I want to thank them for their effort and hard work as members of our program. They will obviously be sorely missed.”
