FULTON, Mo. - No. 22 William Woods University's (17-2, 9-1 American Midwest Conference) D'Mari Wiltz didn't want to settle for breaking the Owls' single-game assists record once, so he did it a second time in a week, dishing out 14 as WWU beat Williams Baptist University (4-13, 1-10) 96-55 to extend its program-record winning streak to 12 games Saturday at Anderson Arena.

"We let them get too comfortable early and weren't as locked in as we needed to be," William Woods men's basketball coach Jordan Ashton said. "We picked it up, which was good to see, but we know we need to be better going forward." 

Outside of Wiltz, the Owls' standouts Saturday were Ty'Shon Pannell with a team-high 18 points (7-11 field goals and 4-8 3-pointers) - he had 13 points in nine minutes during the first half - two assists and a steal, Henry Shannon III with 15 points (7-9 field goals), five rebounds, four blocks (game-high - all in the first half) and one steal and Nate Schwartze with 14 points (3-5 3-pointers and 3-4 free throws), two steals, one rebound and one assist.

Early on, it was a back-and-forth affair as the Eagles took an early 6-4 lead. Then, William Woods answered by scoring eight unanswered points off three Wiltz assists, beginning with a Kevin Taylor 3-pointer, followed by a Francis Okwuosah triple and Taylor layup to send the Owls up 12-6. WBU narrowed its deficit to three points before WWU registered seven points without reply, starting with a Shannon inside bucket provided by Wiltz, then Wiltz assisted a Schwartze make from deep before he turned scorer with a layup to give the Owls their first double-digit lead at 19-9 with 13:53 left in the first half.

William Woods didn't let up, and the Owls showed their depth by going on an extended 14-5 run with their rotation players, which increased their lead to 40-21. In that stretch, Jack Wetzel drained two 3-pointers, Pannell had five points (one 3-pointer), Cooper Smith had three points and Tre Titus had two points. WWU put together another strong few minutes of basketball to earn its first 20-point lead before halftime, recording nine points with no response. Aaiden Ashton began that run with a 3-pointer assisted by Schwartze before Schwartze made a free throw, Pannell sank a triple off a Titus assist and Schwartze got a layup to fall to hand the Owls a 52-28 advantage. The Eagles tallied the final four points of the half to make it a 20-point WWU lead (52-32) at halftime.

The break didn't take the Owls away from their superior form, opening the second half on a 10-2 run to elevate their advantage to 62-34, ending in an NAIA top play of the week-worthy alley-oop dunk by Shannon, who received a lob from Wiltz and put down a left-handed tomahawk slam that blew the roof off of Anderson Arena and sent The Woods student section into a frenzy. The Wiltz to Shannon connection led to one more jam, and the pair's final point-scoring play was on Wiltz's school-, personal-record assist. With 15:42 to go, Wiltz sent the rock to Shannon, and he swished in his layup off of the former's 14th helper to put it at 69-39 Owls. Another Saturday, another PA announcement of a Wiltz single-game assists record, with a different, younger WWU student breaking the news this time, as Brendan Bowlin sent Owls fans into applause once the freshman shared the news of Wiltz's feat.

While Wiltz was done creating shots, that didn't mean William Woods slowed down its offense. Schwartze started a spectacular 10-point unanswered stretch for the Owls by going on a personal 8-0 run; the Tolton graduate converted two free throws, then landed 3-pointers in back-to-back possessions. A Pannell end-to-end layup from his steal finished WWU's 10-0 run and made it 79-41 Owls. With the result all but decided, Williams Baptist stayed with William Woods for the last 12:02, getting outscored 17-14 by the Owls.

William Woods pulled down 43 rebounds (12 offensive) with 10 second-chance points, scored 25 points off 19 forced turnovers and shot 53.6% (37-69) from the field, 41.7% (15-36) from deep and 63.6% (7-11) from the free-throw line; the Owls swatted a season-high seven shots, their most since their home AMC meeting against WBU last season, when they had 10 blocks on Feb. 24. Williams Baptist brought down 27 boards (seven offensive) with seven second-chance points, tallied 17 points off 10 forced turnovers and converted 38.2% (21-55) from the field, 29.2% (7-24) from 3-point range and 42.9% (6-14) at the charity stripe.

The Owls conclude their four-game homestand against the University of Health Sciences & Pharmacy in St. Louis (6-14, 0-11 AMC) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. WWU had scored at least 101 points in its last two matchups with the Eutectics, prevailing 101-43 in the most recent one on Dec. 5 in St. Louis.

"Back to work, we need to do all we can to keep improving and keep it going," Ashton said. Read Full Article