PARAGOULD, Ark. -
D'Mari Wiltz had a Wiltz-like double-double for his third as an Owl, tallying 10 points and 10 assists to help No. 14 Wiliam Woods University (20-2, 12-1 American Midwest Conference) power past Crowley's Ridge College (13-9, 7-5) 93-64 for its 15th straight win Monday at Carter Activities Center. The Owls were scheduled to face the Pioneers on Jan. 11, but it got moved to Monday due to winter weather.
"Solid one for us tonight," William Woods men's basketball coach
Jordan Ashton said. "Road games are never easy, especially after having three games in the last five days. Proud of our guys for staying focused, locked in and staying together. We need to keep going."
With six Owls scoring in double figures, WWU's balanced offense was led by two clinical shooters,
Nate Schwartze (3-4 3-pointers and 3-3 free throws) and
Tre Titus (4-6 3-pointers and 3-3 free throws), who scored a co-game-high 16 points.
William Woods also had a collective effort on the defensive end as it outrebounded Crowley's Ridge 39 (12 offensive) to 24 (nine offensive). The Owls' standouts on that side were
Kevin Taylor with his second straight game-high nine-rebound display - Taylor played just 17 minutes -
Aaiden Ashton with eight boards off the bench and
Henry Shannon III with three rebounds, two steals and one block - on the offensive end, Shannon recorded 14 points (5-7 field goals and 4-5 free throws) and one assist.
Despite winning the game handily, William Woods let Crowley's Ridge take the first lead when the Pioneers' Braxton Cousins landed a jumper on the opening possession. Wiltz responded immediately, hitting a layup to tie it at 2, and then he made it back-to-back inside buckets to send the Owls ahead 4-2. Following a pair of scoreless drives, CRC evened it at 4 on Timquorian Johnson's fastbreak basket off Zak Brown's steal/assist. Wiltz continued his hot start, sinking a shot beyond the key to give Woods a 6-4 lead. It remained back-and-forth; the Pioneers went up 7-6 on Hayden Robinson's 3-pointer assisted by Lamont Jackson.
Francis Okwuosah answered with a triple of his own to make it 9-7 Owls. Then, for the final time, CRC knotted it up, 9-all, on Robinson's mid-range make.
Fittingly, two of William Woods' top performers on the night were involved in the play that gave the Owls the lead for good. After Taylor pulled down a defensive rebound, Wiltz flipped it to Titus, who stroked in his first 3-pointer to make it 12-9 WWU with 15:56 left in the first half. A 7-0 Owls stretch, starting and ending with an Ashton basket in the paint with a Titus triple mixed in, put WWU ahead by double digits for the first time at 29-19 with 8:49 remaining in the first half. An extended 20-4 Owls run that spanned 5:43 gave them a 49-30 advantage at halftime. During that lengthy scoring stretch, Shannon notched seven points (putback, three-point play and a transition dunk assisted by Wiltz) and Schwartze opened the run with three free throw makes and capped it with a 3-pointer.
Speaking of 3-pointers, the fourth and final of Titus' game-high 3-pointers handed William Wods at least a 20-point lead the rest of the way at 52-32 with 19:10 left in the second half. The Owls tacked on more to their lead, a 10-2 run increasing their lead to more than 30 points at 78-47 with 9:22 to go; Schwartze and Taylor had five points apiece from a 3-pointer and a layup during that period. Shannon got it done on both sides to spark WWU to its game-high 35-point advantage by assisting a Schwartze 3-pointer, stealing a Pioneers pass and scoring a putback to achieve it at 86-51 with 6:49 remaining. From there, CRC outscored the Owls 13-7 in garbage time as WWU won it by 29.
The Owls registered 11 second-chance points, scored 16 points off eight forced turnovers and shot 52.2% (35-67) from the field, 40.7% (11-27) from 3-point range and 75% (12-16) at the free-throw line. The Pioneers had 10 second-chance points, tallied 10 points off nine forced turnovers and converted 39.3% (24-61) from the field, 14.3% (2-14) beyond the arc and 77.4% (14-18) at the line.
William Woods seeks to keep it up when it takes on rival Columbia College (18-5, 11-2 AMC) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Arena of Southwell Complex in Columbia. As of Monday, the Owls hold the No. 1 seed for the AMC Tournament, while the Cougars are the No. 3 seed with just under a month of the regular season left. In their first matchup on the campaign, WWU eked out an 84-81 win over CC on Dec. 12 in Fulton.
"We'll continue to work on controlling the areas we emphasize every day," Ashton said. "We still have another level to get to and will work towards getting there. Tough one coming up for us on Thursday, we need to be ready to go."
