Makenzie Fessler surpassed 1,000 career points at William Woods about a month ago against Dalton College. He hasn't stopped scoring since.
Fessler was honored prior to the Owls' Saturday home game against Columbia College and then earned more cheers by scoring a game-high 27 points to lead William Woods to an 83-70 win against the Cougars. William Woods (5-7, 1-0 AMC) began its American Midwest Conference schedule with a victory and remains a perfect 4-0 in Anderson Arena.
Both teams combined for 12 turnovers and shot at least 40 percent from the floor. The Owls received 18 points from Spencer Yoggerst and 15 points from Mike Robinson, who along with Fessler, had nine of the team's 13 3-pointers.
Yoggerst got started early in the first half, scoring seven of William Woods' first nine points and eventually scored 15 of his points in the first half. He nailed his second 3-pointer at 11:22 for a 22-13 Owl lead. Fessler hit another two minutes later to spark a 13-3 run for a 35-21 lead at 5:41.
Tony Burks scored 10 of Columbia College's last 12 points of the first half to cut William Woods' halftime lead to 42-37. He was the Cougars' leading scorer with 23 points.
Chima Oduocha kept Columbia College (6-7, 1-1 AMC) in it for most of the second half as he had a jumper at 15:52 to cut the William Woods lead to 50-47 and another at 8:51 for a 55-53 Owl lead. William Woods had two makes from deep up until that point and proceeded to tack on with a Nathan Schwartze make seconds after the latter Oduocha bucket.
Robinson and Schwartze then took turns making 3-pointers as William Woods had a 67-57 lead with six minutes left. The closest the Cougars got after that point was six points at 69-63 with 4:36 remaining.
Fessler had 13 points in the second half, including six in the final four minutes, while Robinson hit three 3s.