WBU’s Late Comeback Falls Short at No. 23 Columbia

COLUMBIA, Mo. (12/2/23)  – The Williams Baptist men's basketball team nearly erased a double-digit second-half deficit but had its rally fall just short in a 70-66 loss to American Midwest Conference opponent No. 23 Columbia Saturday afternoon.

Columbia led by 24 (52-28) with 11:19 to go in the game, but the Eagles went on to outscore the Cougars 38-18 over the final 11 minutes of the game to nearly complete a remarkable comeback that fell just four points short.

With the loss, WBU fell to 5-1 and 0-1 in conference play, while Columbia improved to 7-2 and 1-1 in the league.

Williams was led by Frank Petion who had 14 points, while TJ Clardy and Tevin Tate finished with 10 each. Ashton Young provided 10 rebounds, seven of which were on the defensive end. 

The Eagles began to chip away at the deficit behind the efforts of Petion, who went on a personal 6-0 run to get the Eagles within 18. Ben Keton made a single-digit deficit at the 4:05 mark with a layup to get within 62-53 and Tate got the Eagles within 68-64 on a layup with just under a minute remaining.

Williams' comeback was aided by a strong presence in the paint, and cold shooting performance from the Cougars, who failed to knock down a field goal in the final 2:26 of the game. 

Coming out of a timeout, Young got a steal and passed ahead to DJ Townsend who missed a 3-pointer and Columbia controlled the rebound, but a steal by Townsend and a quick pass ahead to Duke Hardin for a layup got the Eagles within 68-66 with 16 seconds left.

After a timeout, WBU was forced to foul and Columbia's Trendon Tisdale knocked two free throws with 12 seconds left to go up by four and WBU failed to get a quick bucket on the offensive end to put an end to comeback attempt.

The Eagles return to the court Saturday, Dec. 9 at Haskell at 3 p.m.