Kingsmen efforts aren’t enough against No 2. Merrillville

Coming off of a disappointing loss to Jimtown earlier in the week, Penn looked to to head into sectionals with a bit of momentum on Friday Night.

The problem was Penn (10-12) faced off against the number 2 team in the state, Merrillville. (22-1) The Kingsmen started off a bit startled when Senior guard DJ Wilkins lead the Merrillville Pirates to a 5 to nothing lead.

Wilkins, a dual-threat quarterback for the football team drew interest from a number of division 1 schools including Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, and Indiana State. He also attended a Michigan camp and had a Michigan State unofficial visit last summer.

Wilkins also has division 1 interest at shooting guard on the basketball court. Wilkins has interest from a number of major college basketball programs such as Indiana, Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State, Butler and Xavier. He has scholarship offers from IUPUI, Northern Kentucky, and Furman.

The Kingsmen found themselves down early, but were only down 10 to 12 going into the second quarter. Penn earned their first lead of the game when Matt Trewhella made a 3 pointer from the corner.

Merrillville didn’t take this Kingsmen lightly as they closed the half on a 12 to 2 run to give themselves some breathing room going into the third quarter. Penn played with heart throughout the entirety of the game, and closed the gap to a 6 point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

An impressive drive by freshman Noah Applegate cut the Pirates lead to just four points in the fourth quarter.  That would be as close as Penn was to tying the game and Merrillville proved why they are the number 2 team in Indiana.

Matt Trewhella lead the Kingsmen with 21 points and put forth a phenomenal effort in his last game in the Palace at Penn. Noah Applegate added 11 points for Penn and Tyler Seger added 9 in the loss.

The Kingsmen head into sectional play this week on a 3 game losing streak, their last win being nearly 3 weeks ago to Elkhart Central. That being said, Penn is undefeated (4-0) against the teams they played in their sectional.

Penn takes on Northridge tomorrow night at Northside Gym in Elkhart at 7:00. If the Kingsmen advance they will take on the Warsaw Tigers (21-1) Friday night at 6:00.