FULTON, Mo.—The William Woods men's basketball team will look to halt its four game skid and win the regular season series against Park University inside Anderson Arena on Saturday afternoon. Tip-off is scheduled to start at 4:00 p.m.
Saturday is also Military Appreciation Day at William Woods, as any current or former military members who show ID at the gate, get in free with their families.
The Owls (6-17; 4-9 AMC), dominated the first half against Harris-Stowe, shooting 62.5 percent, including 70 percent (7-of-10) from downtown and headed to the locker room up 45-34. Things, however, changed in the second half, as the Hornets used an 11-0 run and were able to tie the game up at 54-54 with just over eight minutes remaining in regulation.
The teams would continue to swap lead changes multiple times, but with .23 seconds left, it was the Hornets up 73-70 and they looked to put the game away. The Owls defense though came up big, forcing a turnover which allowed
Seth Thomas to drain a three-pointer with .08 seconds left and force overtime.
Harris-Stowe would retake the lead in overtime and again held a marginal advantage at 82-81 over WWU with .40 seconds left on the clock. The Owls had one final chance to win the game, but its three-point attempt at the buzzer missed and HSSU handed WWU a heartbreaking one point loss.
"Last night was a thriller, but it just didn't go our way," said assistant coach Andrew Green. "We competed until the last play, and there were some gaps earlier in the game that we obviously wanted to play better and to never put ourselves in that situation, but to get us into overtime, we hit some shots when needed," he added.
Jonathon Nutt paced the offense, scoring a team-high 22 points and went 11-of-12 from the free throw line, while Thomas, who returned to action after missing the previous two games due to injury, netted 13 points and
Nate Bitner added 12 on the night.
"Nutt had been struggling as of late shooting the ball," said Green. "He got in his groove though, started attacking the defense and looked like vintage
Jonathon Nutt that we saw earlier this season."
Through the past four games, the Owls have four players scoring double-figures, led by Nutt (12.7 ppg), Burgess (12.5 ppg), Bitner (12.0 ppg) and
Patrick Lewis (11.3 ppg) putting up strong games when needed on offense.
On the season, the Owls are averaging 75.7 points, shooting 42.9 percent from the field and 68.6 from the free throw line. Nutt leads the offense, averaging a team and career-high 14.6 points, shooting 80.9 from the charity stripe and leads the team in assists with 61.
Burgess, a Jacksonville, Ill., native, continues his stellar play, scoring 13.7 points and leads the team in rebounds with 128 (5.8 rpg). Guard Lewis is putting up just under 10 points (9.8 ppg), while Bitner has upped his season average to 9.6.
This will be the second time around the Owls and Park University (10-9; 8-4 AMC) meet up, as in its previous outing back on Jan. 4
th, WWU picked up a road win, defeating the Pirates 81-73.
"That was the first time in William Woods men's basketball history that we won at Park. From there standpoint, they are going to come in here fired up and ready to play," said Green. "The game will come down to who will execute their game plans better."
Park had its five game winning streak snapped on Thursday night, against No. 6 Columbia College, as the Cougars cruised to a 85-57 victory.
On the season, the Pirates are putting up 72.9 points, while surrendering just 69 through 19 games played. Xavielle Brown is scoring a team-high 18.8 points, shooting 47.6 percent and leads the team in rebounds with 121 (6.4 rpg).
"(Xavielle) Brown is one of the toughest guys in the conference and NAIA," said Green. "He can score in a multitude of ways and has such a strong body that he will provide a matchup problem for us. They have some other players who can shoot the ball just as well, like Kyle Enloe, Melvin Rowe and Denzelle Cook," he added. "Records aren't so similar, but we are a pretty similar team with traditional big players and heavy guard play."
Denzelle Cook is averaging 12 points on the year, while Melvin Rowe is putting up 7.1 points and shooting 52.9 percent from the field.
"We have to play a full game against Park, especially late," said Green. "Even though we lost against Harris-Stowe, we executed late in the game and will need to continue that against the Pirates."
Fans stay updated on wwuowls.com on Saturday night for a full recap and score against the Pirates.
