#13 nationally-ranked Penn (28-5) will travel back to Point Lookout, Mo. for the 32-team NAIA Division II Men’s Basketball National Tournament, March 12-18. Tournament pairings will be released Wednesday with all other information being released earlier in the week.

All Penn contests at nationals will be webstreamed on the William Penn Athletics website, courtesy of Stretch Internet, at http://statesmen.wmpenn.edu/radio.php

Games will likely also be available on KBOE radio with more details to also come next week.

Penn beat Waldorf 75-65 in last year’s championship game to qualify for a national tournament for the first time since 1983.

Sunday’s final lived up to its hype as the teams battled tightly throughout with two ties and nine lead changes. Neither team shot well in the first stanza as Clarke went into the break ahead 31-29.

The Crusaders could have been up by much more had their leading scorer and the MCC regular-season Player of the Year DeMonte Bynum not gotten in foul trouble. The senior scored 11 points, but committed three fouls in playing just 15 minutes before halftime.

Penn fell behind by six points in the early going of the second half before scoring 13 unanswered over a span 3:44 to take a seven-point advantage at 42-35, an advantage they would not relinquish.

The contest continued to be close, although the hosts were able to push the lead up to a game-high ten points at 57-47 with 4:44 remaining. Unfortunately, Clarke refused to go away, scoring the next seven points quickly to trail by just three with 3:06 left.

Penn continued to hold at least that large of a lead until the Crusaders’ Brian Harris made a layup with 1:25 to go to cut the deficit to two at 61-59 with 1:25 left on the clock.

Neither team scored on their ensuing possessions and the visitors had to foul Luke Letzring (Sr., Alta, Alta HS) with 11 seconds remaining.

Letzring, a 59.0% free-throw shooter (36-61) entering the game, missed the first attempt, but knocked down the second to force Clarke to make a three-pointer to tie the game.

Bynum, who finished with a game-high 16 points, brought the ball down the court and fired up a shot from the top of the key. The shot was missed, but the rebound stayed with the Crusaders with only three seconds left. The ball was then passed out to the perimeter again, but fortunately for Penn, time ran out before Clarke got off its second try, giving the Statesmen their second-straight MCC Tournament title.

The low-scoring affair produced just three double-digit performances by the Statesmen with Joseph Powell (Sr., Raleigh, N.C., North Idaho CC) leading the charge with 14 points. Andre Thompson (Sr., Tacoma, Wash., Washington State) added 12 points and Kris Miller (So., Belleville, Mich., Belleville HS) had ten points on the afternoon.

Powell tied for the game lead with three assists, while Thompson and Adam Weig (Sr., Hubbard, Des Moines Area CC) had a team-best two steals apiece.

Letzring contributed eight points and Caleb Stout (So., New Sharon, Kirkwood CC) finished with seven points as the pair also tied for the game lead with eight rebounds each. Letzring had two blocks as well. The starting five accounted for 50 of the team’s 61 points.

Penn did not win the shooting battle, hitting just 35.0% of its shots, compared to 38.5% by Clarke, but the hosts did take the rebounding category, 44-39. The Statesmen also held a huge advantage at the line, going 17-24 overall, while the Crusaders were just 4-13 from the stripe.

"Adam Weig and Kris Miller did an extraordinary job on the league’s Player of the Year, forcing him into some difficult shots," Statesmen Head Coach John Henry said. "We are looking forward to getting back down to Point Lookout and getting further than last year. I know if we can play defense like we did this afternoon, we can beat a lot of teams."