St. Louis, Mo.- William Woods Men's Basketball connected on 15 of 30 three-point field goal attempts on their way to a 98-55 victory over AMC foe Harris-Stowe State on Monday night.
The matchup between the Hornets and Owls was originally scheduled for January 22
nd but winter weather postponed the game twice. The victory over HSSU ended a two-game losing streak to the Hornets. The Owls have now won four games in a row and find themselves in third place in the AMC standings, one game back of Columbia, and two games back of Central Baptist.
A slow start from the Owls saw them down 5-0 a minute into the game before head coach,
Jordan Ashton took a 30 second timeout. The early timeout would pay off as the Owls would go on an 18-6 run after a steal and subsequent layup by
Gacoby Jones Jr., giving WWU an 18-10 lead with 12:51 remaining in the first half. Woods continued its offensive success, knocking down three straight three pointers by
Nate Schwartze,
Gacoby Jones Jr., and
Francis Okwuosah giving the Owls a 28-point lead, 46-18 with 3:39 left in the first half. HSSU would cut the lead to 21 by halftime as the Owls led 48-27 at the half. WWU was 8-18 from the 3PT line, and 10-11 from the free throw line in the first half, committing just three turnovers.
However, Harris-Stowe would come out with a full-court press to begin the second half looking to slow down the Owls offense. The first four minutes of the second half saw the Hornets cut the Owl lead to 52-35 with 16:43 remaining. An Ashton timeout again set the stage for an offensive explosion as WWU went on an 25-13 run to push the lead to 75-48, capped off by another
Nate Schwartze three with 7:18 remaining. The Owls would push the lead to as many as 44 with under a minute to play as
Xavier Iyeyemi came off the bench to knock down a three-pointer followed up by a layup as Woods would win it by the final of 98-55.
Another impressive offensive night for the Owls as they shot 50% from the field, 50% from the three-point line (15-30), and went 17-20 from the free throw line. The Woods Bench accounted for 61 of the 98 points,
Tre Titus came off the bench to score 14, while
Kyle Belgrave II also off the bench added 12 points. Three starters finished in double figures as
Gacoby Jones Jr. had 19 points,
Henry Shannon III had 15 points, and
Francis Okwuosah tallied 13 points. The Owls again showed their dominance on the glass with a 41-25 advantage, also forcing 13 turnovers resulting in 22 points.
WWU improves to 14-7 (6-3 AMC). William Woods will head back to St. Louis on Thursday night to take on UHSP at 7:30 p.m.
