FULTON, Mo. – A strong bench contribution and good effort taking care of the basketball propelled The W men's team to a 62-47 win at Westminster College, in a St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference bout at Historic Gym. The Owls improved to 2-4 overall (1-1 SLIAC) in garnering their first league win of the year versus the Blue Jays (0-7, 0-2 SLIAC).
 
MUW's bench outscored WC's, 32-25, with the Owls' top two scorers for the game – Eric Bass Jr. and Tyson Smithey – both hitting double-digits off the pine. Bass Jr. led the squad with 13 points, on a 6-for-11 shooting night from the floor. He also had four rebounds.
 
Meanwhile, Smithey went 4-for-8, overall, from the field on his way to a 10-point game. Smithey grabbed eight rebounds and dished off three assists, as well.
 
The Owls did a nice job of protecting the basketball by committing just seven turnovers. That's in stark contrast to Westminster's 18 miscues, which were converted into 20 points by MUW.
 
But the beginning of the game was in no way indicative of the final result, as the Blue Jays raced out to a 10-0 lead. The W did not get on the scoreboard until nearly six minutes into the first half, thanks to a pair of free throws from Isaiah Ball. It would take another minute before MUW registered its first field goal, a Ball layup, at the 13:07 juncture that made it 12-5.
 
Ball's bucket helped ignite a 15-3 run by The W. When the dust had settled, a Smithey layup at 5:17 gave the Owls their first lead of the game, 17-15. There would be four ties and six more lead changes before MUW took the lead for good, 38-37, with 13:19 left in the second half on a jumper in the paint by Bass Jr.  That began an 8-0 run by The W to create some separation from the Jays.
 
The balanced MUW attack saw three of the team's starters – Jackson Reid, Dariun Doss, and Ball – all finish with a similar stat line of eight points, four rebounds, and one assist. A fourth, Cam Smith, had a statistical "buffet" with six points, eight rebounds, seven steals, two blocks, and an assist on his platter.
 
Josh Dukes added six points and six rebounds to the win.
 
The W will continue its road trip on Saturday (Dec. 7/3 p.m.) at Webster University.