In front of a Homecoming crowd, junior William Powell (Huntsville, Ala.) notched his first double-double of the season to lead Seattle University to a 65-55 victory over Missouri-Kansas City Saturday night in a Western Athletic Conference men’s collegiate basketball game at KeyArena, extending the Redhawks’ winning streak to five games.
Powell shot 6-of-8 from the field as he tied his season high with 17 points, plus he pulled down 12 rebounds and dished out six assists. Emmanuel Chibuogwu (Seattle, Wash.) reached double figures in scoring for the third time in the past five games with 12 points, while Jack Crook (Manchester, England) contributed eight points and eight rebounds.
After each team exchanged four-point runs to start the game, went on an 8-3 scoring run, capped by a Powell dunk off a steal and pass from Brendan Westendorf (Auburn, Wash.), to take a 12-7 lead. The Redhawks extended that lead to 24-16 with less than four minutes in the first half, but Missouri-Kansas City closed out the half with a 9-3 scoring run to close to within two at 27-25 at halftime.
Missouri-Kansas City (9-15, 2-7 WAC) tied the game twice within the first 1:19 of the second half on baskets by Shayok Shayok, but Chibuogwu hit back-to-back jumpers to give the Redhawks the lead for good. Three-pointers by LaVell Boyd and Martez Harrison as well as two free throws from Harrison brought the Kangaroos to within one three different times, but Seattle U started to pull away thanks to five straight points from Powell.
Harrison scored four straight points to bring UMKC to within three at 46-43 with 7:38 remaining in the second half, but a steal and dunk by Jadon Cohee (Langley, B.C.) and two three-pointers by Jake Spurgeon (Sherwood, Ore.) helped the Redhawks extend their lead back to eight points five minutes later. Late in the second half, Seattle U made 13 straight free throws to put the game away.
“I am pleased with the overall effort of the guys tonight. We did a good job defending a team that is normally tough to defend,” Seattle U head coach Cameron Dollar said. “Offensively, with some guys having nights that were uncommon, I thought our patience in taking what they were giving up showed through. We were able to score inside and get fouled, and we took advantage of most of those opportunities at the line.”
As a team, Seattle U shot 40.0 percent (20-of-50) from the field, including 3-of-12 from behind the three-point line, and 22-of-32 from the free throw line. The Redhawks controlled the boards, 39-28, and scored 20 points off 17 Kangaroo turnovers.
Harrison shot 6-of-12 from the field, including three three-pointers, and 7-of-9 from the free throw line to lead all players with 22 points. UMKC was held to 33.3 percent (16-of-48) field goal shooting, including 7-of-24 from behind the three-point line, plus the Kangaroos shot 64.0 percent (16-of-25) from the free throw line.
Seattle University (12-11, 6-3 WAC) will have a chance to move up in the WAC standings when it faces Grand Canyon Friday, Feb. 12, starting at 7 p.m. at KeyArena. Tickets for the game are on sale through Ticketmaster as well as at the KeyArena Box Office during normal business hours. The game is the WAC Digital Network Game of the Week, and it will also be broadcast on 770 AM KTTH, starting with the pregame show shortly before tipoff.