The William Woods University Owls basketball team continues to climb.
Junior forward David Johnson Jr. supplied a game-high 21 points and 10 rebounds as William Woods moved into second place in the American Midwest Conference with a 78-64 win over Lindenwood University-Belleville (Illinois) on Tuesday night at Anderson Arena.
The victory was the fifth in a row for the Owls, who improved to 9-5 overall and 6-2 in the AMC. Lindenwood-Belleville tumbled to 2-13 on the season and 2-6 in conference play.
William Woods broke out to a fast start by scoring the game's first seven points. The Owls then used a 16-5 run to open up a 24-point advantage at 44-20 on junior guard Treshawn Gause's basket with 2 minutes, 55 seconds to go in the first half.
William Woods built its biggest lead of 29 points, 58-29, on senior guard Shad Kimble's 3-pointer with 15:02 left in the game. The Lynx got within nine points with 2:17 to play, but the Owls were able to close out the 14-point triumph.
Johnson Jr. - who was 4-of-6 from 3-point range - directed five players in double figures for William Woods, which shot 44 percent (28-of-64) as a team. Gause added 14 points and nine assists, senior guard Brian Enriquez logged 13 points and Kimble and sophomore forward Makenzie Fessler contributed 10 apiece.
Fessler also grabbed eight rebounds as both teams ended in a 39-all standoff on the boards.
Jahkeal Samuel and CJ Reeder both had 14 points for Lindenwood-Belleville, which shot just 39 percent (25-of-64) from the field.
The Owls travel to Hannibal-LaGrange University for an AMC matchup at 7:30 tonight.