FULTON, Mo. -- The William Woods University women's basketball team hosts Stephens College for its 2013-14 regular season home finale on Saturday afternoon. Tip-off for this American Midwest Conference showdown, presented by the Iron Skillet, is set for 2 p.m.
In their last time out, William Woods (19-8, 12-7 AMC) picked up its third straight win by defeating Mid-Continent University, 82-48, on Senior Night in Anderson Arena. The Owls used a 19-2 run in the first six minutes of the second half to turn a 13-point lead into a 30-point advantage.
The Owls were led by a 15-point performance from senior Katie Scherder. The Bowling Green, Mo., native is putting a nice cap on her final year as an Owl, as she is averaging 11.6 points per game over her last five games. On the year, Scherder is one of three WWU players who are averaging double-digits in the scoring column this season.
"I think when Katie shoots it well we are a better team," said Head Coach Dan Chapla. "We need some scoring from her, and in games where she has done that we have been able to perform at a higher level. We will need some of that down the stretch here from her, and she is capable of putting up those kind of numbers."
Saturday's meeting will be the second time this season that these two schools have faced off during the 2013-14 season. Back on Jan. 18 the Owls defeated Stephens College (1-24, 1-18 AMC) 82-46 in Columbia, Mo.
Freshman Kennedy Volkart led the team in scoring that afternoon, with her 13-point performance on 6-of-9 shooting performance. Senior Andraquay Quinnine provided 11 points off the bench for WWU, as they outscored the Stars 49-0 in bench points.
Sophomore Seleena Neal scored 24 of the Stars' 46 points on the day, and she leads the team in scoring with her 17.5 points per game average this season.
Coach Chapla knows how talented Neal is, and says his team will need another solid defense effort to slow down Stephen's leading scorer.
"She is a very nice player for them. She is the type of player that has given us fits all year against us, as she is very athletic and can get to the rim quickly. We have to be ready for her aggressiveness and throw in a couple of different looks at her to try to throw her off her rhythm on Saturday."
Stephens College has collected one win on the year, but that is due to a forfeited game to Harris-Stowe. The Stars suffered a 108-31 home loss to crosstown rival No. 12 Columbia College. Neal scored a team-high 18 points in the loss.
Coach Chapla stresses that despites Stephen's subpar record, his team needs to be prepare for an important game in terms of conference seeding.
"I've been preaching to our kids all week that we fear nobody and respect everyone. We had three games this week against the bottom half of our conference, and we cannot take these games for granted if we want to do what we are wanting to achieve this season. It's an important game for us, we cannot get sloppy, or have players looking to put up a high stats. We have the have the same mentality on Saturday that we would have if we were facing some of the top teams in our conference."
William Woods leads the all-time series 20-6, which includes its 82-46 victory back on Jan. 14 of this season.
Check back with wwuowls.com for a full recap of this and every game during the 2013-14 season.
