Eagles Rally Falls Short Against No. 17 Central Baptist

WALNUT RIDGE, Ark. (1/20/25) – The Williams Baptist University men's basketball team rallied late but fell to No. 17 Central Baptist in the final minutes by the final score of 92-79 inside the Southerland-Mabee Center on Monday.

Elisha Cofield put up a double-double in the contest with 20 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Eagles in both categories.  Amarion Wilson and Trahe Qualls piled on 19 more points to keep WBU in the ballgame.

As a team, WBU went 31-for-64 (48.4 percent) from the floor and 6-for-16 from the three-point line.  Williams lost both the rebound battle 41-37 and the turnover battle 15-9.  WBU never led in the contest.

The game was all Mustangs for much of the first half, with CBC extending its lead to as much as 18 points though the first 12 minutes.  A Qualls layup capped off a 9-0 Eagles run to cut the lead to five with just over two minutes remaining in the half.  The Eagles went into the locker room down 44-37 at halftime.

After halftime, Elisha Cofield cut the lead to two with 16:38 left in the second half with a layup to force a CBC timeout.  Out of the timeout, the Mustangs slowly extended the lead back out to seven to force a Williams timeout.

Cofield struck again late to cut the lead back to five with 8:53 left, but WBU was unable to keep pace with the Mustang offense after that.  A 10-0 Mustang run pushed the lead back out to 74-61 and Williams was unable to recover in the last five minutes of the contest.  

The Eagles fifth straight loss drops the club to 4-11 on the season and 1-8 in American Midwest Conference play.  WBU returns to the floor on Thursday, Jan. 23 in St. Louis, Mo. against Harris-Stowe.  Tip-off against the Hornets is set for 7:30 p.m. from the Emerson Performance Center.