FULTON, Mo – The men's basketball team hosted the Missouri Valley Vikings (4-3, 1-1 Heart) late Wednesday night in Anderson Arena.
William Woods University (3-4, 1-1 Heart) got its offense going quickly, riding the momentum from the home crowd in Anderson. With that, the Vikings would continue the pace of the Owls for much of the first half. With the Owls getting their biggest lead of the half at 7 with
Demarco Buchanan led the Owls with 11 points and 2 steals. The Vikings would rally back to take a late lead in the first half, and the Owls would go into the half down 37-33.
Coming out of the half, Missouri Valley would carry their momentum from the first half into the second half as their lead would grow to a big as 15 early in the second half, looking to run away with the game. With some gritty defense from the Owls, though, they would start to crawl back into the game, getting the score down to a 7-point game at one point. Buchanan would continue his first-half success with 12 points, and
Isaiah Payne added 8 points to that with a steal.
With momentum teetering to each side, the second-half slump would be too much for the Owls to overcome as they would fall to the Missouri Valley Vikings 78-66 in a hard-fought conference match-up.
Owls look to regroup for their conference match-up Saturday with the William Penn Statesmen as the Owls head to Oskaloosa, Iowa, for a 6:00 p.m. tip-off.
