Story by NAIA office

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – (Box score) In its first NAIA Division I championship trip, No. 3 seed William Penn (Iowa) rode balanced scoring to a 85-77 victory against No. 6 Montana Western at the first round of the 2016 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship. Brady Burford led six Statesmen in double figures with 17 points.

William Penn moves on to the second round Friday to face the winner of No. 2 Columbia (Mo.) and No. 7 LSU Shreveport (La.) at 2:15 p.m. CDT.

William Penn, who joined the NAIA Division I-affiliated Heart of America Athletic Conference after membership in the now-defunct NAIA Division II Midwest Collegiate Conference, took advantage of a deep bench and five starters able to score at any point. Four starters scored at least 10 and the bench held a 29-14 scoring edge.

The first-half was a very competitive match-up with 11 lead changes. A trey by Connor Woodill handed Montana Western its largest lead of the first half – and eventually the game – at 17-11 with 12 minutes to go. Kevin Smith ignited the William Penn offense with seven points during a swing when the Statesmen went to the locker room with a 41-35 lead.

“Our bench, highlighted by Josh Caldwell, Jeff Drew, Shane Bosek and Kevin Smith was terrific tonight,” said William Penn head coach John Henry. “We are happy to advance to the second round, but our guys have already said this is not the end for us. Our crowd was amazing. It definitely helped feed our team during the game.”

One minute into the second half, Montana Western’s Woodill connected on another triple to make the deficit five points (43-38), but the Bulldogs never cut the hole below five the rest of the way.

Steven Roundtree’s jumper with 3:42 remaining pushed the Statesmen lead all the way to 16 at 80-64. From there, William Penn cruised to its first win in Kansas City.

Besides Burford, Jarvis Haywood recorded 14 points, followed by Roundtree and Smith with 11 points. Jessie Pernell and Shane Bosek put up 10 in the scoring column. Roundtree had 11 rebounds for his sixth double-double in his last nine outings.

Woodill carried the offensive load for Montana Western. Averaging 8.7 points on the year, the senior forward had a career-day with 31 points and seven 3-pointers. His previous season and career high was 28 points two games ago against Rocky Mountain (Mont.) on Feb. 26. Demitrius Balark added 13 points and seven rebounds. Dexter Williams Jr., snared a team-best 10 rebounds.

“We played hard, but didn’t play well enough defensively to win,” said Montana Western head coach Steve Keller. “I am proud of our guys for playing hard and giving it all they had down the stretch, and extremely happy for senior Connor Woodill, who scored a career-high 31 points in his final game.”

Montana Western finishes its year with a 19-13 record and lost for the first time in the NAIA National Championship First Round since 2011.

Game notes:
William Penn - Earned the program's first-ever win at the Division I National Championship...Roster is made up of players from 11 states, the most of any team at the National Championship...Entered the postseason leading the NAIA in four statistical categories, all for rebounding...Tied a season-high with seven players scoring in double-figures...Five three-point field goals ties a season-low...The Statesmen have turned the ball over 17 times in three-straight games...The nine blocked shots was the second-highest single-game total this season.

Montana Western - Snapped a streak of three-straight first round victories at the National Championship… Head Coach Steve Keller has accounted for five of the Bulldogs' seven wins at the National tournament...Connor Woodill set a number of career-highs; points scored (31), shots made (11), shots attempted (17), three-point field goals made (7) and three-point attempts (11)...Quinn Smith was held without a field goal for the first time this season...Tied a team season-low with 50-percent shooting on free throw attempts.