FULTON, Mo. - Add more firsts to No. 9/No. 1 seed William Woods University's (26-2) season of milestones, surpassing the century mark for the first time in postseason play and breaking its single-game points record with a 117-57 victory over No. 8 seed Harris-Stowe State University (8-19) in the AMC Men's Basketball Tournament Presented by TandemHR quarterfinals Thursday at Anderson Arena.

"We played more of a complete game tonight and took a step forward," William Woods men's basketball coach Jordan Ashton said. "We need to keep going with it and focusing on the same things. We also got some major contributions from guys off the bench tonight, which was huge for us."

Leading the Owls' balanced offense in their 21st consecutive win were the two that scored that many co-game-high points in 19 minutes: Nate Schwartze (7-12 field goals, 5-10 3-pointers and 2-2 free throws) and Francis Okwuosah (6-10 field goals, 3-7 3-pointers and 6-8 free throws). 

Okwuosah also tied Jacob LaBounty and Tre Titus for a tri-game-high seven rebounds, while Ty'Shon Pannell dished out a game-high six assists, Henry Shannon III went up for a game-high two blocks and D'Mari Wiltz had a team-high three steals.

With all those great games, one would think The Woods led throughout. But the Hornets began the contest by scoring four unanswered points, and they had their last lead at 8-5. The Owls picked it up and posted 11 points without reply, including three 3-pointers - two from Schwartze and one from Titus. That commanding WWU stretch put it at 16-8 Owls with 14:52 left in the first half.

The Owls didn't relinquish their lead, though it took another 5:53 for them to extend it to double digits. Titus did that, swishing in two free throws to make it 26-15 WWU. Then, the Owls used a 10-4 run to increase their cushion to 21 points (47-26) with 2:37 to go until halftime. Okwuosah began the stretch with a 3-pointer, then Shannon hit a layup and put down a slam and Aaiden Ashton ended it with a 3-pointer, assisted by Pannell.

Not stopping there, William Woods heightened its advantage to 57-26 at halftime. The Owls concluded the first half with 15 unanswered points, beginning with a Shannon dunk, featuring two 3-pointers and finishing with two free throws made by Titus.

That wasn't even the Owls' most dominant period of basketball, as they opened the second half on a 19-3 run to hold a 76-29 lead with 14:27 remaining. Okwuosah tallied seven points in that time, four from the line thanks to a Harris-Stowe technical foul, and Schwartze capped the run with four points, landing a layup and jumper in two successive drives.

A few minutes later, LaBounty sent William Woods in front by half a century, 82-32, getting his putback to fall. The LaBounty show reached its peak when he erupted Anderson Arena with a thunderous dunk to elevate the Owls' advantage to 89-37, and just under five minutes later, he converted a jumper to bring WWU into triple digits at 101-44 with 5:39 left. 

Another part of the Owls' supporting cast gave them a 60-point lead (104-44) as sharpshooter Jack Wetzel knocked down a triple with 5:18 on the clock, and the last of his four 3-pointers tied The Woods' single-game points record of 109 - Aaiden Ashton broke the record, going 1-2 from the stripe on the Owls' next drive. Adam Barbieri also joined in on the fun, draining two free throws to hand WWU its largest lead at 114-49 with 2:03 remaining.

The Owls brought down 50 rebounds (12 offensive) with 15 second-chance points, scored 18 points off 11 forced turnovers and shot 59% (36-61) from the field, 41.2% (14-34) from 3-point range and 72.1% (31-43) from the free-throw line. The Hornets had 30 boards (11 offensive) with six second-chance points, tallied five points off seven forced turnovers and made 28.1% (18-64) from the field, 18.2% (4-22) from deep and 68% (17-25) at the stripe.

Prior to making more records, a trio of Owls were honored for their feats before the game: In last Saturday's 94-65 triumph at Mission University that gave WWU a share of its first-ever AMC regular season title, Okwuosah and Shannon each scored their 1,000th career point, and Wiltz broke WWU's single-season assists record with 173 - Kevin House's 171 in 2015-16 was the previous record.

The next game of William Woods' path to the AMC Tournament title is a semifinal matchup with a team it will be conference opponents with in the coming years, hosting No. 5 seed Missouri Baptist University (13-16) at 3 p.m. Saturday. The Owls won their season series with the Spartans for the first time since 2016-17, taking the most recent game 81-67 on Feb. 20 in Fulton.

"We've got a tough one coming up on Saturday for the semifinals; we need to be locked in and ready to go," Ashton said. Read Full Article