EASTON, Pa. - Bucknell used a 9-2 run to start the second half and never looked back, winning 79-65 over Lafayette on Saturday afternoon at Kirby Sports Center. Seth Hinrichs tied his career high with a team-best 17 points, but it wasn't enough to offset Mike Muscala's 27-point effort for the Bison.

With 11:15 showing on the first half clock, Muscala misfired on a jumper that Ryan Willen saved to Tony Johnson on the Leopards' baseline. Johnson then found Hinrichs in transition for a three-pointer, making the score 14-13 in favor of the Bison. Willen's rebound to spark the basket was the 500th of his career, putting him in a class of 13 players with 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in their Lafayette careers.

Aside from Jim Mower's layup to open the game, Bucknell (13-6, 3-0) controlled the action in the first half, led by Muscala, the reigning Patriot League Player of the Year, who scored 19 points in the opening 20 minutes. Lafayette (7-11, 2-1) went into the locker room trailing 34-30 as the team shot 5-of-8 from beyond the arc, including a pair of threes from Hinrichs and Levi Giese.

Bucknell scored nine of the first 11 points after halftime to take its largest lead of the game to that point, 43-32, prompting a Lafayette timeout. Mower's drive down the center of the lane for a three-point play resulted from the timeout, but Joe Willman answered with an 18-footer on the other end.

Mower's three assisted by Joey Ptasinski at 12:31 cut the deficit to seven (49-42) but Bucknell wouldn't allow Lafayette to get any closer over the next six minutes of action, holding at least an eight-point lead for a majority of the stretch.

Trailing by 14, Johnson's corner triple cut the deficit to 66-55 with 5:55 remaining, but Cameron Ayers connected from outside on the next trip for three of his 11 points to retake a 14-point lead. As a team the Bison shot 57 percent from the field and were 14-of-14 from the stripe. Lafayette shot 46 percent in the game, but was outrebounded 34-18.The Leopards' recorded a season-low six turnovers.

Willen and Mower were the other two Lafayette players in double figures, scoring 14 and 10 points, respectively.

Lafayette hits the road on Thursday, when it travels to Worcester, Mass. to play Holy Cross at 7 p.m. The game will nationally televised on CBS Sports Network (DirecTV 613, DISH Network 152) and GoLeopards.com will carry an audio-only broadcast.

Click here for a full breakdown of the game's stats!

PARKVILLE - The Owls held a comfortable lead for most of Saturday's contest, but it came down to a 10-minute stretch at the end of the game as the William Woods snatched a 61-58 win over Park. Blake French (St. Charles, Mo.) led the charge for WWU, racking 4-of-5 from distance en route to a 14-point outing.

Although the offense took a bit to get rolling, WWU took care of the business on the defensive end, holding Park to just one field goal in the first ten minutes of the contest to take a 17-5 lead.

A short cold spell for the Owls allowed Park to narrow the gap to 21-12 with just under eight to go, but a quick seven-point turn pushed the lead out to 16. Miranda Loesch (Lohman, Mo.) drew a foul, but missed her second free throw. A charging Andrews picked up the offensive rebound and finished off the second-chance possession with a three from the left wing. The Owls forced a turnover, and Katie Scherder (Bowling Green, Mo.) racked a triple to push the WWU lead to 28-12 with 5:40 on the clock.

Park was able to narrow the gap down the stretch, but the Owls took a 32-22 lead into the halftime break.

Despite a pair of quick buckets, both teams got rolling a bit slowly out of the break, with the Owls pushing to a 41-28 lead with 15:00 to go.

The Pirates stepped into a full-court press, mounting a 19-9 run to pull within three with just under seven minutes to play. The Owls broke the press with a long-range bomb to Andrews with 6:40, but the Pirates were able to respond and a steal and a fast-break bucket by Oasha White put Park in front 54-52 with 4:58 to go.

With the Owls trailing for the first time since the first minute of the game, Loesch responded with a jumper in the lane, but Park racked a bucket on the next possession and forced a shot clock violation on the Owls' next offensive trip.

With just over two minutes to go, the Owls were able to return the favor and force a shot clock turnover, with Blake French knocking down a deep trey to put WWU back in front 57-56. Two defensive stops from the Owls wrapped around a transition bucket from Andrews left Park with no choice to foul, and Ashlee Taylor calmly swished both to put WWU in front 61-56 with 44 seconds.

Park scored on its next possession and forced a WWU timeout on the inbounds. After the timeout, the Pirates fouled Andrews before the ball could be put in play to keep time on the clock.

Although Andrews missed the front end of the bonus, WWU picked up a huge defensive stop on the Pirate possession. Park fouled Andrews just 0.8 before the clock expired, and even though Andrews missed the front end of the bonus, the desperation heave was way off the mark and the Owls held on for the win.

WWU moves to 11-5 on the year, 1-1 in conference play as the Pirates fall to 11-4 and 1-3 in AMC action. The Owls were solid from the floor, shooting at a .418 clip and recorded a season-best .615 mark from 3-pt range. The Owls held Park to a .411 mark from the floor and a .375 pace from long range. Aubuchon and Andrews finished in double-figures for the Owls as well, with 11 and 10 points respectively. Nicole Wilhite led all scorers with 15 points for Park, with White adding 12 and Kristian Dodds notching 11.

William Woods is back in action next Thursday night, as they finish out the two-game road swing at Columbia. Tipoff for the AMC battle between the Cougars and the Owls is set for 5:30 p.m.

ShowMe Scoreboard, 1.14.2012

Games played Friday, Jan. 13, 2012

 

High School Boys

• Dexter 68. Bernie 61
• Cape Central 59, New Madrid County Central 47
• Oran 59, St. Vincent 50
• Charleston 99, Scout County Central 86
• Kennett 73, Senath-Hornersville 49
• Delta 74, East Prairie 50
• Advance 89, Richland 65
• North Pemiscot 72, Southland 38
• Holcomb 66, Neelyville 31
• Doniphan 64, Naylor 50
• Poplar Bluff 56, Twin Rivers 45
• Clearwater 71, Van Buren 54

High School Girls

• Poplar Bluff 52, Twin Rivers 29

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

So far this season, when the ‘Cats have been in a close game that came down to fourth quarter free throws, they’ve lost.

That wasn’t the case Friday night in front of a capacity crowd in the Bearcat Event Center; the ‘Cats knocked down nine of 11 from the free-throw line to take a 68-61 victory over the Bernie Mules on Homecoming night.

“It’s ironic that we iced it away at the free throw line, when we’ve iced many in the other direction this season,” a relieved Rob Nichols said after the game. “The kids have learned from it, and we’ve spent extra time shooting free throws; it becomes a mental thing. They step up and make a few and we’ll start going the other direction.”

“Any time you play a quality team like Bernie and get a win, you have to feel good about it,” he added. “You have to play well to beat them, and tonight we played just well enough to do it.”

Neither team could establish any momentum in the first half; every time the ‘Cats went on a scoring run, the Mules quickly followed suit, but it was the Bearcats that took a 28-25 lead into the locker room at halftime.

“It was a game of runs; Bernie had their runs, and we had ours,” Nichols said. “It didn’t look good at times, but the kids buckled down and found more energy and got it done.” The ‘Cats trailed by as many as seven points in the second half; a 22 point effort from the Mules in the third quarter, aided by a pair of threes from Jake Wagner, saw Bernie to a 47-43 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

The Mules picked up the Bearcats’ usual woes from the charity stripe in the contest, shooting a paltry nine of 22 from the line. Head coach Brad Botsch noted it as a key factor in the loss.

“We had our chances. We went up six or seven a time or two, and had opportunities to extend the lead from the free throw line,” Botsch said. “Dexter did a good job of hanging in there, and we never could get the real momentum we needed to cushion the lead. When you let good teams hang around on their home floor, you are asking for trouble, and they stepped up and outplayed us in the fourth quarter.”

Cody Neldon and Jake Lee, who paced the ‘Cats with 14 and 19 respective points, combined for 17 of the Bearcats’ 25 fourth quarter points in the team’s best offensive frame of the contest to propel the ‘Cats to a 68-61 victory over their SCAA rival.

“Cody battled foul trouble all night, and looked frustrated at times, but he does a good job of breaking defenses down and getting us easy baskets with an assist,” Nichols said. “That’s what he gives us. Jake Lee didn’t get the ball a lot in the first half, but we really made an effort to get it in to him during the second half, and I think he did a good job of finishing.”

The Bearcats turned the ball over 17 times in the contest, and seemed to struggle with Bernie’s press from time to time throughout the game. In the second half, however, the ‘Cats were able to use Bernie’s press to their advantage, and picked up several quick buckets in transition.

“We turned it over quite a bit against their press, but we also found some layups against it at key points to stop some of their runs,” Nichols commented. “It seems like when we’d get a rebound we’d turn it over after a defensive stops, and that takes the wind out of your sails. Again, it didn’t look good at times, but I’m proud of the kids for coming out, buckling down, and getting a win.”

“We really felt that we could press them and wear them down because they don’t play that many kids, but they made some good adjustments and got some easy buckets on us,” Botsch noted. “We struggled from the free throw line and it really was tough to overcome the missed opportunities.”

The Bearcats will be in action again on Tuesday, when they hit the road to face the Puxico Indians. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.

Editor’s Note: The ‘Cats are now a perfect 4-0 in SCAA play, while the Mules fall to 2-2 with the loss. Bernie’s other conference loss came against the Advance Hornets. Both teams will eagerly anticipate their seeds in the Stoddard County Tournament, which will be determined on Saturday morning.

Fulton, Mo. -- The William Woods University womens' basketball team saw its furious comeback attempt fall just short on Thursday night as the team lost 65-68 to Hannibal-LaGrange University. Sharron Andrews (Oakland/Hayward, Calif.) posted her fourth double-double (17 pts, 11 reb.) of the season and the team's sixth in as many games, but an HLG 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds stunned the #22-ranked Owls.

WWU quickly found itself on the wrong side of a 8-0 run, missing its first four attempts from the floor and failing to capitalize on three Trojan turnovers. The Owls sputtered to life, but still found themselves down 5-10 with 14:52 to go in the half.

A Ciara Tatum (Columbia, Mo.) jumper in the lane with 11:26 left in the first half finally seemed to rouse the Owls, with a 17-9 run putting William Woods up 26-22 with just over a minute to go, but HLG was able to close out the half with two makes and pick up a defensive stop to leave the teams knotted at 26-26.

Coming out of the break, WWU was simply no match for the hot-shooting Trojans, as HLG connected on its next 13 attempts - 8-of-8 FG, 5-of-5 FT - to take a 50-37 lead with 13:21 to go.

Miranda Loesch (Lohman, Mo.) finally stopped the HLG run with 12:58 on the clock, as she stoned Trenee Thornton in the low post. The senior picked up the rebound as well following the rejection, adding a second rebound in the space of 30 seconds off a missed Tatum free throw. Loesch found an open Megan Aubuchon (Old Monroe, Mo.) for three to bookend a 7-0 spurt pulling WWU to within six, but as quickly as the Owls reeled in the Trojans, HLG responded, pulling back to 46-57 with 7:11 left.

The Owls would eventually battle back , with a pair of Loesch free throws closing the gap to 61-65 with 1:12 on the clock. Andrews got the Anderson Arena crowd on its feet with two quick baskets, converting after the Owls drew a charge and picking the pocket of Klara Glor with just 14 seconds left to tie the game at 65-65.

HLG was able to find an open look on its next possession, however, as Ashleigh Spencer drained a trey with 1.1 seconds to go and WWU wasn't able to get a clean look as time expired.

William Woods falls to 10-5 on the season, and 0-1 in AMC play. In addition to Andrew's double-double, Aubuchon had 22 points to lead the Owls. Ashley Wilson also recorded a double-double on the evening, with the HLG senior leading all scorers with 27 points and adding 11 rebounds. Spencer also finished in double figures, with 21 on the night for the Trojans.

Both teams shot considerably better in the second half, with the Owls hitting at a .560 pace to close with a .431 overall mark from the floor. The Trojans mustered a .577 pace to end the contest at a .472 clip. WWU edged out HLG in the rebounding battle 32-31 as well.

The Owls hit the road for the next two AMC contests, with Park University offering the next test. Tipoff for Saturday's game between WWU and the Pirates is set for 2 p.m.