Late Rally Dooms Eagles Against Trojans

WALNUT RIDGE, Ark. (1/23/26) – The Williams Baptist University men's basketball team lost to Hannibal-LaGrange on Friday night by the final score of 69-62 inside the Southerland-Mabee Center.

Jesse Washington led the team with 20 points on 7-of-16 shooting.  Deion Wesson and Aseem Luckey each followed with 11, and Benjamin Noonan scored 10 off the bench.  Luckey posted a double-double with a team-high 12 rebounds.

As a team WBU went 21-of-68 (30.9 percent) from the field, while the Trojans went 23-of-61 (37.7 percent).  The Eagles won the rebound battle 49-41.  

The Trojans broke out to the first substantial lead of the game after a three-pointer with 12:15 made it 18-13.  The Eagles swung back with a five point run to tie and take the lead 19-18 behind a pair of free throws from Benjamin Noonan.  

After trading buckets, the Eagles finished the first half on a 10-1 run punctuated by triples from Washington and Noonan to end the period ahead 39-30.

Williams led for most of the second half, but Hannibal cut the lead to two after a layup with 10:17 to go.  Washington and Wesson combined for a six point swing to push the lead back out to eight with 7:37 to play.  

Back-to-back threes from HLGU cut the Eagle lead to one with 3:19 to play, and the Trojans took the lead on a layup with 1:31 to go.  The Trojans held the WBU offense without a score for the final four and a half minutes of the game to complete a 14-0 run and hand WBU its first home loss of the season.

The loss moves Williams to 15-3 overall and 5-2 in American Midwest Conference play.  The Eagles return to the home floor on Saturday, Jan. 31 to host No. 22 Columbia.  Tipoff against the Cougars is set for 3 p.m. inside the Southerland-Mabee Center.