By Christopher Brown

On Tuesday January 10 the William Penn Colonials beat top ten  ranked St. Elizabeth at home  59 to 48. William Penn was led by  junior Gerard Wall with 14 points and  senior Jermal Crumel with 12 points.

The game started with intensity and the Colonials had  the momentum on their side, senior point guard Jermal Crumel said,” I believe Gerrard Walls buzzer beater at the end of the first quarter turned the game around because we started seeing the ball go in which gave the whole team confidence.”

Part of the Colonials success was holding  a top ranked team to 8 points in the first half.  That showed their  defensive performance, a real team effort. The head coach , Steve Christensen said, ” I, thought we were real good job defensively. There are some things we can work on like clean up the 4th quarter and offensively do some things better. I am happy with the effort and happy with the team  coming along.”

This win against a ranked opponent boosted the confidence of the team  Crumel said,’ I believe we learned we can compete with anybody in the state & possibly bring home a championship”

The past two years William Penn has had records of 16-4 and 17-3. Both years they had a lot of varsity experience. This season is different with 4 of the starters this year .” Last year we had guys with some significant varsity experience, this year we only have a few guys with any experience and only one starter from last year. Everybody is adapting to their new roles are figuring out how they fit.”
The rest of the season will be a battle for the Colonials due to the difficult schedule they will face 5 of the current top 10 teams to end the season. But if the Colonials play like they did tonight they should have no worries. The next game is Thursday 1/12 5:15 at William Penn