The W’s men’s basketball team got in three more games last week, one of which was the squad’s fourth victory in a row, but in the next two the Owls were forced to play catch up and couldn’t complete the comeback in back-to-back losses in a tournament on the road.
The slate of games got started on Thursday with a wire-to-wire 68-61 victory at Hendrix College. The game stayed scrappy throughout as each side battled back and forth for points with neither squad able to truly pull away. The W (5-6, 2-1) hung onto a 33-30 lead at halftime and quickly pulled ahead to a six-point lead in the beginning of the final frame, but the Warriors quickly reeled the Owls back into striking distance with 3-pointers by Eli Lovelady and Ty Jones. The two teams continued to trade buckets down the stretch, and a layup and a free throw by Hendrix’s Holden Plant made it a three-point game with 4:49 left to play. Joe Haze Austin drilled a shot from deep in response, and The W cruised the rest of the way for the win.
Tray Huguley and Austin both notched double-doubles to help lead their team to victory. Huguley scored 20 points and hauled in 12 rebounds, and Austin scored 13 points with 12 boards. Devin McCaine splashed in 17 points and grabbed four rebounds on a night where his team shot 51.9% from the floor.
The first of the team’s next two losses suffered in the Hildeman Holiday Tournament in Memphis was delivered by Texas Lutheran University on Saturday. The Bulldogs raced ahead for a 42-30 lead at halftime en route to an 81-74 victory over the Owls. The W turned it up a notch in the second half by outsourcing TLU 44-39 but couldn’t overcome the depth of the Bulldogs. Along with making 14 shots from beyond the arch, TLU had three players reach double-digit points and also had eight other players make at least one basket for a total of 30 points produced by its bench. The Owls’ bench scored nine points.
The W got another double-double from Huguley, who yanked down 20 rebounds and scored 17 points. Trent Walker scored 16 points with six boards, Devin McCaine chipped in 15 points and Tyler Shephard contributed 14 points and five rebounds.
Looking to bounce back on Sunday against North Central College, the Owls again let an early deficit turn into a hole too big to climb out of in a 71-68 loss.
A mid-range jump shot by Huguley gave The W the first points of the game – and it was the last time the team would hold a lead in the first half. North Central responded with an 11-0 run over the next four minutes of play that turned into a 35-26 lead at halftime. The W came out of the break on a mission and managed to take a 54-53 lead with 7:49 left to play on a 3-pointer by Jackson Reid, and even managed to go ahead by five points. The Cardinals, though, kept chipping away and retook control with a tip-in by Ethan Marlowe and never looked back the rest of the way.
Huguley led the team with 17 points and five rebounds, and both Walker and McCaine scored 11 points each. Shepherd rounded out the team in double-digit scoring with 10 points. The Owls swished home nine shots from deep on 20 attempts but coughed up 20 turnovers. The Cardinals used those new possessions to score an extra 32 points.
The season will continue for The W on Jan. 3 when Lyon College comes to town for a conference tilt.
MUW women
In women’s basketball, the Owls were hit with their fifth-straight defeat in an 88-60 loss to Huntingdon College last week.
The win for the Hawks avenged their first meeting with the Owls back on Nov. 29, in which The W earned its first and only victory of the year, and was their second triumph in a row. The Owls pulled ahead 16-13 heading into the second quarter and both teams headed to the break tied at 29-29. Behind a total of 12 makes from deep, the Hawks turned up the heat and outscored 59-31 the rest of the way.
Mia Bowen led the Owls (1-10, 0-3) with 24 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks, and Conley Langford scored 14 points, adding seven rebounds and four assists. The W was outrebounded 58-37 and gave up 34 points to the Hawks’ Makayla Ford. The team plays next on Jan. 3 against Lyon College at home.
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