ST. LOUIS – [BOX SCORE] The American Midwest Conference Game of the Week featuring the No. 23 William Woods Owls and the Spartans lived up to the hype. The Owls survived the back-and-forth contest 63-60 inside Lacey Gymnasium.

The game featured 11 total ties and 17 lead changes. The final tie came with 1:33 left in the game at 58-58. MBU (12-9, 6-7) led 58-55 and unfortunately for Spartan fans, the home team was outscored 8-0 the rest of the way until a last-second bucket at the buzzer.

Two free throws from DeShaun Stark tied the game and then gave William Woods (14-8, 8-6) the lead for good. MBU had an offensive foul on the next possession and a bucket from Brandon Vice extended the Owl lead to 61-58 with 40 seconds left. Jared White missed an opportunity on the other end and a free-throw with 23 seconds left made it a two-possession game for good.

The Owls five point lead with 14 seconds left was its largest of the game. The Spartans jumped out to a 9-0 lead to start, which turned out to be their biggest of the night. A subsequent 8-0 run from William Woods put the Owls back in the game and set the tone for the back-and-forth affair.

A 3-pointer from Will Harrington put the Spartans up four at the 15:49 mark. After that, neither team led by more than two points the rest of the half. Pablo Hernandez scored eight of his team-high 18 points in the first half that ended in a 30-30 tie. Both teams shot under 36 percent in the first 20 minutes.

The Spartans led by as many as four points in the second half, the final time after a free throw from Johnny Benson with 9:02 left to push the score to 49-45. Benson finished the night with 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting. The Owls also led by four, 55-51 with 4:12 remaining. White then rattled off five points in a 7-0 MBU run to go ahead 58-55.

Hernandez followed his 20-point game with 18 on 6-of-7 shooting. White also finished in double-figures alongside Benson with 10 points. MBU lost the rebound battle 43-33 and shot 27.8 percent from 3-point land. Stark led the Owls with 17 points. Trey Mitchell (13), Brandon Vice (12) and Torin Washington (11) also had double-digit outputs.

The Spartans will look to bounce back on Saturday when they travel across the river to Lindenwood-Belleville. Tip is set for 3:00 pm.