St. Louis, Mo. -- Behind a torrid second-half shooting performance, the William Woods University women's basketball team ran out 20-point winners at Missouri Baptist on Thursday night.
Miranda Loesch (Lohman, Mo.) posted a career-high 14 points, including 10 in the second half alone, as the Owls downed the Spartans 64-44.
The Owls opened up a 7-2 lead with just over two minutes gone on the strength of a bucket from
Sharron Andrews (Oakland/Hayward, Calif.) and a layup and a three-pointer from
Katie Scherder (Bowling Green, Mo.) and held a five-point lead for most of the first half.
Missouri Baptist narrowed the gap down the stretch, taking advantage of a pair of WWU turnovers to tie the game at 22-22 with 3:24 left in the half, but Andrews closed out the half with five straight points to take a 29-24 advantage into the locker room.
WWU was able to push out to a 10-point cushion coming out of the intermission, leading 39-29 with 14:23 on the clock. MBU pulled back within eight before a 10-3 run for the Owls - powered by four straight buckets from Loesch and capped by a basket off the turnover from
Ciara Tatum (Columbia, Mo.) - put William Woods in front by a 49-34 margin with 9:23 to go.
The Spartans were able to rattle off a short spurt, pulling within reach at 50-41 with just over six minutes left, but Loesch stopped the run with a basket at the 5:43 mark and the Owls simply overpowered MBU down the stretch.
In addition to Loesch's 14-point outing, Andrews finished with 11 points and Scherder added 10 on the night. The Owls were unselfish as well, handing out 13 assists on 25 buckets. WWU posted a second-half shooting pace of .520 to finish the game at a .410 mark and held the Spartans to a .333 clip for the game. Andrea Seabaugh led the Spartans with 13 points on the night.
The Owls move to 16-6 overall and 6-1 in AMC play and will begin the second half of the conference schedule on Saturday, taking on Hannibal-LaGrange University. Tipoff for the game is set for 2 p.m.
