FULTON, Mo.—The (RV) William Woods University women's basketball team displayed an impressive performance in its season and home opener on Tuesday night, as the Owls defeated Missouri Valley College 81-69 inside Anderson Arena.

The Owls (1-0), finished the outing shooting 45.8 percent (27-of-59) from the field, 53.8 percent (7-of-13) from downtown and 80 percent (20-of-25) from the charity stripe. The WWU defense, meanwhile, limited MVC to just 40.0 percent shooting from the floor (26-of-65) and 30.8 percent from beyond the three point arc (8-of-26).

"I think it is always good to get the first win and find out a little bit about our team," said head coach Dan Chapla. "We scratched and clawed, while also having really good wing play tonight, as I was impressed with our 2's and 3's that really won us the game."

It was a back-and-forth matchup early on, as the largest lead through the first 11:00 minutes of play was four and that belonged to William Woods, when the score was just 9-5 at the 16:24 mark.

The two teams' were tied at 25-all, but then newcomer Marissa Webb knocked in a two-pointer, which gave the Owls a 27-25 lead. The Poplar Bluff, Missouri, native, and Three Rivers Community College transfer, had a strong debut in the Owls uniform, going 5-of-6 from the field and 2-of-3 from the three point arc, for a team-high 15 points in just over 25:00 minutes of play.

"Marissa Webb played as good as a first year player, in her first game on the season, in my time here thus far and I am proud of her," said Chapla.

From there, the Owls would close out the half on a 8-2 run, capped off by a Dennisha Rice three-pointer with .58 seconds left, to give the Owls its largest lead of the half at 35-27, as both teams' headed to their respective locker rooms.

WWU shot 40.0 percent (12-of-30) from the field, while the Vikings (0-2), had its struggles early in the first 20:00 minutes of play, going 11-of-33 (33.3 percent) from the field and 3-of-15 (20.0 percent) from the three-point arc.

In the second half, the Owls started off on fire, as a two pointer by Kennedy Volkart, a three pointer from Blake French and two made free throws from Volkart, extended the Owls lead out to 42-31, at the 17:21 mark.

The Owls would maintain is marginal lead as the clock continued to tick down, but the Vikings continued to battle, as TaLaya Earls knocked in a three-point shot, which put the score at 51-42, with 14:01 remaining.

Earls had a strong game for MVC, totaling a game-high 25 points on 8-of-18 shooting from the field and also tied Volkart with a game-high eight rebounds.
WWU would respond after the basket by Earls, as junior Julia Wells hit a two pointer in the paint, which put the Owls lead back to double-digits at 53-42.

The team never relinquished its double-digit lead from there, as they were able to even extend its advantage out to a game-high 19 points at 73-54 with just under 6:00 minutes left in the game, after Kendra Vernatti knocked in both of her free throws.

It was all William Woods from there, as the team went on for the 12 point victory and collected its first win on the 2014-15 season.

The Owls shot 51.7 percent from the field in the second half, while going 14-of-17 from the free throw line.

French finished the game with 14 points on 4-of-10 shooting, but went a perfect 5-of-5 from the charity stripe, while Vernatti totaled a career-high 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting off the bench and Wells added 10 points, as the Springfield, Missouri, native, went 3-of-4 from the field.

"Kendra (Vernatti), I am just proud for her, as that was a great effort tonight," said Chapla. "She hasn't played much in two years', but she has been battling and playing hard in practice, so I told her we would get her some time and she came out and made the most of it, so that is only going to help her down the road."

The WWU defense swarmed the Viking offense all night, forcing 24 turnovers, while the Owls out-rebounded them on the defensive side of the boards (29-22) and in the game 41-37.

"Early games you got to win ugly, got to do it with defense and effort, as we weren't pretty at times on offense with 22 turnovers," Chapla said. "I think we are better than that, but we found a way to make it difficult for Missouri Valley tonight."

He added, "MVC came ready to play, as that game down at College of the Ozarks wasn't indicative of them, but we just have to learn from this and continue to get better."

The Owls will return to the court this weekend at Columbia College in the Cougar Classic on Friday afternoon against University of the Cumberlands. Tip-off will start at 2 p.m.

Fans make sure to stay updated on wwuowls.com on Thursday afternoon for a full preview of Friday's action from Columbia, Missouri.  

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