ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- The William Woods University women's basketball team takes to the road on Saturday afternoon, as they look to avenge an early season loss to Missouri Baptist University. Tip-off for this American Midwest Conference showdown is set for 2 p.m.
William Woods (16-8, 9-7 AMC) will look to avoid its second consecutive loss on Saturday after they dropped a 52-47 decision at Anderson Arena to Lyon College on Thursday night. The Owls were done in by a 14-0 Scot run midway through the second half that turned an eight point advantage into a five point deficit that they would never recover from.
Andraquay Quinnine's 18-point performance wasn't enough to lift WWU to victory. The 18-point effort came just one game after her 17-point outing against Park University last Saturday. The San Francisco native hit a team-high four three pointers in Thursday's loss and has hit the second-most trifectas in the league this season with 57.
"Quay has really came to play over the last two games," said Head Coach Dan Chapla. "She has been playing with some great confidence of late, and for her that's everything. If she hits her first couple of shots, then she is capable of putting up big numbers for us, and she has done that over the last two games."
Thursday's loss was somewhat of a rarity for the Owls, as they suffered the defeat by giving up less than 60 points. Prior to that game, William Woods was perfect 12-0 in games this season when they held its opponent under the 60-point plateau.
"Our defense kept us in the game for 40 minutes last night," Chapla said. "I hope our kids realize that and bring that kind of effort back to the court on Saturday. We've been preaching ever since I've been here that defense wins games. We are going to play a team (Missouri Baptist) this weekend that we didn't defend very well up here, and to their credit they had a great game offensively. Two of their guards had career nights that game, and we just overall have to do a better job on them to give us any chance to win."
Like William Woods, Missouri Baptist (8-15, 6-9 AMC) comes into Saturday's contest off a loss. No. 2 Freed-Hardeman ended MBU's two-game winning streak by defeating them, 83-52, on its home court. The Spartans currently stand two and a half games back from the Owls, as they are occupying the conference's sixth place.
"We cannot allow Missouri Baptist to score easy buckets in transition like we did last month," Chapla said of his opponent. "They have two really good guards that will put up some points, but we cannot allow one of both of them to have a career game like last time."
MBU handed the Owls am 87-84 defeat in Anderson Arena back on Jan. 11. Guards Kristyne Smyth and Taylor Klingelhoefer scored a combined 46 points on the night, as Smyth tallied a career-high 28 points in that game, and Klingelhoefer posted 18 in the upset win.
Smyth leads the team with her 15.7 points per game average. The sophomore has played even better in AMC play by putting up 18.7 points in 14 contest. In fact, the guard has posted double-figures in the scoring column in all but one conference game this season.
William Woods will look to add another win in an all-time series that they have historically owned. The Owls currently hold a 44-14 edge in the all-time series, despite their loss to the Spartans back on Jan. 11
Check back with wwuowls.com for a full recap of this and every game during the 2013-14 season.
