William Woods men come up short in AMC loss to Hannibal-LaGrange

The Owls' furious second-half rally came up a shot short in an American Midwest Conference 65-63 loss to the Trojans on Thursday night at Anderson Arena.

William Woods University (3-5, 1-1 AMC) trailed 35-25 at halftime, but cut its deficit to a point in the game's final seconds. Junior guard Austin Lowery connected on a 3-pointer with 3 seconds remaining to bring the Owls within 64-63.

Hannibal-LaGrange University's Wyatt Stephens was immediately fouled by William Woods freshman forward Darrien Dickey and sent to the free throw line.

Stephens made the first free throw but missed the second, with the Owls coming down with the rebound. However, Lowery's 3-point attempt for the win was off the mark as time expired.

Sophomore guard Ryan Hill sparked William Woods with 14 points and junior guard Jarett Boss tallied 11, making 3-of-5 attempts from behind the arc. Dickey and senior forward Nate Bitner each scored 10 points as the Owls shot 46 percent from the field (23-of-50), including 41 percent (7-of-17) from 3-point range.

Hill grabbed a game-high seven rebounds to steer William Woods to a 39-31 advantage on the boards.

Jay Jones guided Hannibal-LaGrange with a game-high 15 points. Joe Reed and Preston Steinhoff had 11 and 10 points, respectively, as the Trojans shot 38 percent as a team (19-of-50).

William Woods played an AMC game at Williams Baptist (Arkansas) College on Saturday. Results were not available at press time.

The Owls play a non-conference game at Haskell Indian Nations University at 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13.