The Anderson University men's basketball team charged past Mount St. Joseph University with an 82-55 victory during Saturday's Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) matchup in Cincinnati.
Anderson (3-5, 1-1) rolled to a 43-26 lead at halftime. The Ravens outscored the Lions (3-7, 1-2) by a 39-29 margin in the second half.
"I'm thrilled to get a big win on the road," Coach Owen Handy said. "We had tremendous games from Ronny Williams and Maurice Knight at both ends of the floor, leading a really good team effort. Maurice set the tone for us defensively in the first half, and his willingness to move the ball on offense was really important as well."
Ronny Williams powered to a career-high 26 points while dishing out five assists. The junior from Anderson converted 12-of-17 (70.6 percent) shots from the field.
"Ronny has grown so much as a player over the last six months. He did a great job of making decisions about when to score it and when to move it. I've been pretty hard on him over the past couple of weeks and his ability to take coaching and keep playing aggressively has been really unique."
Maurice Knight notched 22 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks. The junior from Frankton became the first Raven to block at least six shots in a game since Andrew Bowman in 2012.
Jake Gudorf recorded career-highs of 14 points, eight rebounds and four steals. Malik Laffoon contributed six points. J.D. Bembry provided five points and Riley Reutener scored four points. Austin Lyons added three points and Phil Bessick rounded out the Anderson scoring effort with two points. Michael Rogers also collected eight rebounds.
Anderson knocked down 33-of-59 (55.9 percent) shots from the field and 8-of-20 (40 percent) attempts from the 3-point range.
The Ravens held Mount St. Joseph to a 33.9-percent (19-of-56) field-goal percentage and a 6.3-percent (1-of-16) shooting clip from behind the arc.
Anderson is slated for two matchups next week. The Ravens take on Defiance College (7-1, 2-0) in HCAC action on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in O.C. Lewis Gymnasium. Anderson then battles Olivet College (1-5) in non-conference action on Saturday at 3 p.m.
"We have a really fun group of guys to coach and to be around. We've had some narrow losses early this season against really good teams and it was gratifying to see their hard work pay off [on Saturday]. We've got a couple of days to enjoy this one, and then a key home contest with Defiance on Wednesday."
