Box Score

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The no. 20-ranked William Woods University women's basketball team ran into defensive struggles on Saturday afternoon as they gave up 31 more points than their season average as they suffered an 85-64 defeat to no. 24 Columbia College.

Olivia Storjohann and Katie Scherder each hit a three-point shot in the opening minutes of the game that gave William Woods an 8-4 lead. It wouldn't last long as Columbia College took a 12-9 lead several minutes later.

The Lady Cougars extended its lead to 17-13 with a three-point shot that banked off the glass at the 13 minute mark.

William Woods battled back as a Prisicila Santos basket cut the Owls deficit to one at 17-16 to force a Columbia College timeout.

Out of the timeout each team struggled to hit a shot, but a pair Santo's fast break layups gave WWU a 20-17 advantage with eight minutes left in the half. The lead was short lived as Columbia would go on a 9-0 run to take a 26-20 lead forcing head coach Dan Chapla to take a timeout.

Out of the time out the Lady Cougars would hit a layup to give them a 28-20 lead but William Woods would go on an 8-0 run of its own capped off by a Destani Stensrud three-point play to tie the game at 28 with 1:56 remaining in the half.

Columbia College would score the last four points of the half to take a 32-28 lead into the locker room.

Scherder started the second half just liked the first as she nailed her third trifecta of the game to pull the Owls to within a basket at 34-31, Columbia responded with a three-pointer of its own to put them back up six with 17:31 remaining.

After a pair of Columbia College free throws, the Owls found themselves down eight at 43-35 with 15:10 left in the game. The Lady Cougars extended its lead to 47-35 after coach Chapla was assessed with a technical foul at the 14:05 mark.

William Woods would find itself down by 16 points at the 12:04 mark after a Columbia College three-point play to give them the 54-38 lead. The Lady Cougars would go on a 12-2 run to extend its lead to 26 points.  Santos would stop the bleeding with a basket at the 8:40 mark but Columbia College hit another three-point shot to put them up 69-42 with 8:40 remaining.

A Destani Stensrud three-point play brought the Owls within 18 points at 82-63 with 50 seconds but couldn't bring the deficit any closer as they suffered an 85-64 defeat.

The Owls struggled from the floor all day as they shot only .355 behind the arc. Columbia shot .500 from the floor for the day, the mark was .162 higher than the average that William Woods normally gives up.

“I've been doing this a longtime and bad offense usually results in bad defense. Tonight we struggled scoring. In the second half we had the inability to hit shots and stay in the game and once we lost it, we just lost it," said Chapla.

William Woods hit only 6-of-25 three point field goals for the game for .240, while Columbia College hit 8-of-18 for .400.

“It's been a struggle for us all year (from behind the arc), we're not the best perimeter shooting team, but we had some really good looks that wouldn't fall for us tonight,” Chapla added.

Santos continued to shine in the loss as she scored a game-high 22 points. Scherder put in 16 points and Stensrud chipped in 11 in the losing effort.

“Priscila has been great for us all year, she is the one kid who can produce some points consistently. I thought her and Katie Scherder really showed up for us today," said Chapla.

With the loss William Woods drops to 16-3 on the year and 7-2 overall in conference play. Columbia College improves to 16-5 on the year and stays perfect in AMC play at 8-0.

The Owls will be back in action on Thursday as they host Benedictine University at Springfield. Tip-off for the game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.