MOUNT PLEASANT – Heather Larson (Jr.-Canton, Ill.) had another strong shooting game and five Iowa Wesleyan College players scored in double figures in an 80-56 win over William Penn University Monday night.
Larson made seven of 11 shots, including four three-pointers, and the Tigers shot 50% as a team to move to 8-1 in the Midwest Collegiate Conference and retain a share of first place in the league. IWC also moved to 13-8 overall and swept the season series against the Lady Statesmen.
The Tigers took control late in the first half and broke the game open in the second half with a 27-7 run. The teams swapped the lead seven times in the game’s first eight minutes before Wesleyan took the lead for good. William Penn stayed close the rest of the half, though, but a late seven-point run put the Tigers up by 10 points just before halftime.
IWC led 35-26 at halftime and then turned the game into a rout in the first eight minutes of the second half. The Tigers hit their first five shots coming out of the half, and later built their biggest lead of the game when Anna Jones (Fr.-Cornell, Ill.) converted a three-point play to make it 62-33 with 12:12 left. Wesleyan would lead by 29 points on two more occasions and would lead by no less than 23 points the rest of the way.
Larson led the team in scoring and added a team-high seven rebounds. Brittany Okland (Sr.-Kelley, Iowa) also had 15 points and made seven of nine shots from the field. Ali DeVries (Jr.-Bellevue, Iowa) scored 13 points, Jones had 12 and Rachel Mitchell (Sr.-Des Moines, Iowa) added 11 points and five assists. Jones also had a game-best six steals.
Wesleyan shot well over 50% for most of the game before cooling late and finishing 29 for 58 for the night. The Tigers also hit 14 of 17 free throws (82.4%) and survived allowing 24 offensive rebounds to the Lady Statesmen.
William Penn shot just 29.7% for the game (22-for-74) and also made just five of 14 attempts from the free throw line (35.7%). Christa Subbert led Penn with 11 points. IWC completed the regular season sweep of WPU, winning at home after defeating the Lady Statesmen 80-64 in Oskaloosa on Dec. 3.
Wesleyan will be on the road for its next two games this week. The Tigers are at Clarke College in Dubuque on Thursday night for a 5:30 p.m. tip against the Crusaders. IWC then travels to Clinton to face Ashford University on Saturday afternoon. The team’s next home game will be a week from Wednesday when the Tigers welcome St. Ambrose University to Ruble Arena.
For more information regarding the IWC basketball programs or any of the Tiger athletic teams, contact sports information director Adam Glatczak (319-385-6306 phone; 319-385-6384 FAX; aglatczak@iwc.edu e-mail) or log on to IWC's athletics web site at www.iwc.edu/athletics.
