FULTON, Mo. -- Behind a 16-point, 10-rebound effort from
Andrew Miller (Whangamata, New Zealand) and four other Owls in double figures, the William Woods University men's basketball team held on for a 79-72 win over Missouri Baptist to close out the regular season.
Jonathon Nutt (Palmyra, Mo.) led the Owls with 20 points on the night.
Althhough each team scored on its first possession, the game got off to a very slow start. MBU was able to take a 4-6 lead with just over two minutes gone by converting 3-pointers on each of its first two buckets and forcing WWU to settle for two points per make, but the Owls deficit would be very short-lived.
A 3-pointer from Nutt with 16:53 on the clock would put the Owls up 7-6 and William Woods would never look back. William Woods slowly stretched the lead as the first half wound to a close, pulling out to a 37-29 lead at the halftime buzzer.
Coming out of the locker room, MBU knocked in a bucket to pull within six, but a 3-pointer from Miller followed by back-to-back buckets from Nutt gave the Owls a 44-31 lead, which the Owls stretched to 52-38 with 14:02 left. The push was punctuated by Miller with a jumper in transition.
William Woods was able to keep the Spartans at arm's length until the 5:27 mark, when a pair of free throws from Le Andre Johnson narrowed the gap to 63-54.
Despite the scare, the Owls were able to ice the game away, as Miller converted a three-point play with 1:00 left and WWU picked up a defensive stop, forcing a bad shot from Johnson. William Woods closed out the contest with eight straight free throw makes, allowing just three baskets from the Spartans over the final 47 seconds.
In addition to Nutt and Miller,
Seth Thomas (Hannibal, Mo.) and
Dontre' Jenkins (New Madrid, Mo.) finished in double figures for the Owls, with 17 and 11 respectively. Hickmon and Johnson each had 15 for MBU. The Owls finished the game shooting at a .448 clip to a .333 mark for MBU and outpaced the Spartans .769 to .727 from the free throw line as well.
With the win, the Owls finished the regular season with a 5-7 record in AMC play, tied with Park University for fourth. With the tiebreakers, WWU earns the #5 seed in the AMC Postseason Tournament and will travel to Parkville, Mo., to take on the Pirates in the first round. Tipoff for the game is set for 7 p.m.
