ST. LOUIS – [BOX SCORE] A late surge helped William Woods escape with a 78-70 win over Missouri Baptist Thursday night in the Spartans conference opener.

The Owls (6-3, 2-1) won the final two minutes, which was the difference in the neck-and-neck contest. The game featured 10 ties and 13 lead changes and ended without the Spartans (4-3, 0-1) able to come away with a road win.

Two free throws from Jared White tied the game at 68-68 with 2:16 remaining. White had a team-high 21 points in the loss. The Owls answered with a bucket on the other end and ended the game on a 10-2 run. White had another bucket to cut the deficit to 72-70 with 39 seconds remaining, but the Owls went 6-6 from the charity stripe to end the game.

The Spartans were unable to connect on shots down the stretch and shot a season-low 32.3 percent. Owls guard Trey Mitchell had 18 second-half points and 25 in total to lead the way. WWU shot 54.3 percent in the second half.

MBU led 7-2 at the start and William Woods subsequently answered with a 10-0 run to take the lead. The two early runs set the tone for the remainder of the back-and-forth contest. The two teams also played each other close in the regular season last year, splitting the two games.

The teams traded buckets throughout the first half, until the Spartans clamped down defensively to take a substantial lead. The navy and white held Williams Woods without a field goal in the final 4:54 to take a 35-28 lead at the break. In total, it was an 8-1 Spartan run to end the half.

White hit his lone triple of the game to give the Spartans their largest lead of the night, 40-30 a minute into the second half. Right on cue, Mitchell answered with a 3-pointer to start his big half and sparked a Woods 10-0 run to tie the game back up with 16:38 left.

Immediately after, two Luke Call 3-pointers upped the Spartan lead back up to six. Once again, the teams went back and forth down to the final whistle. The Spartans led by as many as four in the final 10 minutes thanks to a David Gabrovsek three. The senior from Slovenia continued his consistent play with 12 points and 12 rebounds for a double-double.

The Owls turned the tables on MBU and held the Spartans without a field goal in the final five minutes to leave with the win. Call hit four 3-pointers and finished with 14 points, while Chris Buzzell added 13. Will Harrington had a team-high seven assists. A big story for the Owls was the play of Jonny Woolf who finished with 22 points after averaging 2.6 per game in the first seven.

The Spartans will look to notch their first conference win on Saturday against Lindenwood-Belleville at home. Tip is set for 3:00 pm.