BOX SCORE: Angelo State 71, No. 16 UAFS 69

PLANO – Kenny Williams recorded his fifth double-double of the season with 22 points and 13 rebounds to help lead the Angelo State men's basketball team to a 71-69 win over No. 16 Arkansas-Fort Smith on Friday at Cougar Hall.

The Rams (9-0) extended the program's best start to a season with the wire-to-wire win that also matches the longest winning streak at any point in an ASU season. In the process, ASU also picked up its first win over a nationally ranked opponent since topping No. 23 Midwestern State on Jan. 12, 2011 in an 82-81 overtime victory at the Junell Center.

"I think this is a game that is going to make both teams better," ASU head coach Chris Beard said. "I think we'll be a better team as the season goes along because of playing against this competition. It will be a great film for us to study with our guys. Fort Smith is a really good team and this game could have gone either way. We just made a few more plays than they did."

ASU held a 60-50 lead with 6:18 to play, but the game was tightened to 60-56 with a six-point run from the Lions that was ended on a Tommy Woolridge 3-pointer. The Rams would seed their lead cut to three points again at 68-65 and then to one at 68-67 on a pair of UAFS free throws. Williams responded with two free throws of his own with 18 seconds remaining and then another one with four seconds remaining to seal the win.

"We knew coming into the game that it was going to come down to a couple of plays and who was going to make them," Williams said. "We stayed with the course of the game knowing they weren't going to give up and were able to make some good defensive stops at the end."

The Rams had four players in double-figures with Tommy Woolridge scoring 16, Daniel Skinner 13 and Chris Talkington 10 to go along with Williams' 22. Williams, who has now scored 20 or more in four games this season, tied Bryan Hammond for the team lead with five assists against the previously undefeated Lions (6-1.). Williams went 10 for 12 from the free-throw line, including hitting 4 of 4 on a pair of technical against UAFS's head coach and guard Jake Toupal just two minutes into the second half to give ASU a 46-30 lead.

Williams is now averaging 17.8 points and 8.7 rebounds per game for the Rams and is 32 of 37 from the free-throw line this season.

ASU finished the game shooting 43.3 percent from the floor and limited the Lions to 32.8 percent in the neutral-court game. ASU shot 12 of 18 from the free-throw line in the second half after not shooting a free throw in the first half. The Rams had a 42-39 rebounding advantage in the game, including grabbing 10 offensive rebounds. UAFS went 25 of 32 from the line in the game with nine players making free-throws.

"Free throws are such a big part of the game of basketball," Beard said. "We try to make more free throws than the other team shoots, but we did not get that job done today. Fort Smith does a great job of attacking the basket. But we made the most of ours when we had the opportunity to push leads by making a few."

Seth Youngblood led the Lions with 17 point, while Kenny Martin secured 11 rebounds and added four points. Toupal added 10 points with Xavier McClish scoring nine point and contributing three rebounds.

Angelo State led 39-30 at halftime after shooting 51.5 percent from the field and limiting the Lions to 34.8 percent. Skinner led the Rams with 12 points, including two highlight-reel dunks. He shot 6 of7 from the field, while Woolridge had 10 points and four assists after the first 20 minutes of play. Talkington hit two 3-pointers and had eight points at halftime with Williams at five points and six rebounds for the Rams.

ASU was strong from the start, leading 6-0 with baskets from Omari Gudul, an alley-oop dunk from Skinner off an assist from Williams and then a Skinner jumper. The Rams established a 12-2 and extended it to 18-7 on a Woolridge jumper and to 28-14 on another Skinner jumper. UAFS would close to 32-27 on an Xavier McClish pair of free throws, but a Woolridge 3-pointer took the Rams' lead to 35-27 and the second of two alley-oops by Skinner, this time from Woolridge, gave the Rams the nine-point halftime advantage.

UP NEXT: Angelo State returns to action at 7 p.m. on Tuesday against Oklahoma Wesleyan at the Junell Center before travelling to play Arkansas Tech and Arkansas-Monticello next weekend on the road.