Box Score MARSHALL, Mo.— After trailing by 14 at the end of the first half, the William Woods men's basketball nearly pulled off an impressive comeback in its season opener, but the effort came up just short, as the Owls fell to Missouri Valley College 89-81.
It was a back and forth game early in the first half, as the Owls trailed by two points at 14-12, after a field goal by
Klayton Kuschel with 11:07 remaining. The offense, however, went cold for WWU the next 7:00 minutes, as the Vikings went on a 20-5 run, to take a 34-17 lead.
Since Kuschel's basket, the team went 0-for-5 from the field, until senior
Jonathon Nutt netted his shot as he was fouled on the play, and he went on to make his free throw cutting the lead down to 34-20. The offense, then started to find its groove the final 4:00 minutes, with the team going 5-for-9 from the floor and at the end of 20:00 minutes of play, the Owls trailed 48-34.
Blake Burgess, a Jacksonville, Ill., native, led the Owls in the first half with 13 points, going 4-for-6 from the field, including 2-for-3 from the three point line. For the Vikings, Brad Hamilton led the way with 18 points on 5-for-9 shooting, while teammate Jacob Powell also reached double-figures with 10 points.
The Owls made adjustments in the locker room and the offense came out on fire, as the team went on a 17-5 run in the first 5:00 minutes of the second half, going 5-for-6 from the field capped off by
Seth Thomas nailing a three-pointer cutting the deficit down to one at 52-51.
Then, for the first time since it was 1-0 WWU, the team gained its second lead of the game at 53-52 on a two pointer made by
Nate Bitner. For the next 5:00 minutes, the teams went basket-for-basket, with MVC regaining the lead at 64-63, but with 8:40 remaining left in the game, senior
Dontre' Jenkins gave the Owls the lead back with a three-point play at 66-64.
The team continued to fend off the Vikings, as
Ryan Hill gave William Woods its largest lead of the game at 72-67 with 7:05 left on the clock. MVC, however, battled back and was able to tie the game up at 76-76, with Raviel Burton making his shot and was fouled on the play, with the opportunity to give the Vikings a one point lead.
Burton was able to make his free throw, giving the Vikings a one point advantage at 77-76 and for the final 4:35 of the game, Missouri Valley was able to hold onto that lead, going on for the eight point win.
After shooting 39 percent from the field in the first half, WWU shot much better during the final 20:00 minutes, making exactly 50 percent (14-for-28) of their shots. The Owls had a better shooting percentage from the field and behind the three point line than the Vikings, but what gave the team trouble was having 20 turnovers while only forcing eight, with those 20 turnovers, turned into 23 points for the Vikings.
MVC controlled the bench scoring with a 31-20 advantage and points in the paint having 36, while holding WWU to 24.
The Owls were led by Burgess and Nutt, as the duo were the only players to reach double-figures for the Owls. Burgess ended the evening with a career high 22 points on 7-for-13 shooting, while Nutt contributed 18 points and a game high five assists. Thomas added nine points off the bench, while Kuschel grabbed down a team high 10 rebounds.
MVC had four players reach double-figures, led by Hamilton totaling a game high 25 points. Burton earned himself a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Jim Thomas added 18 points off the bench, while Jacob Powell netted 15.
The Owls (0-1) will be back in action next Tuesday Nov. 12
th on the road against Haskell Indian Nations University. Tip-off will start at 7:30 p.m.
