Box Score
FULTON, Mo. -- Blake French's 21-point effort helped the William Woods University women's basketball team close out the 2013-14 home schedule with a bang, as they defeated Stephens College, 92-49 on Saturday afternoon.
French was able to tie her career-high in points on the afternoon, as she hit 7-of-9 from the field, including 3-for-4 performance from behind the arc to help William Woods (20-8, 13-7 AMC) win its fourth straight game.
"When she is making three pointers she is extremely hard to guard," said Head Coach Dan Chapla. "She is becoming a complete player for us. We know she can drive the basket and get to the free throw line, but today she shown that she is capable to hit the long range shot and teams have to respect her on that."
The St. Charles, Mo., native was able to put up the 21 points in just 19 minutes of action on Saturday.
The win gives the Owls their 20th victory of the season, which marks the sixth straight season that the Owls have collected 20 or more wins. Since arriving on campus for the 2008-09 season, Chapla has never won less than 21 games in a single season.
"I'm really proud of that feat. It means we have had a lot of good players come through our program. Anytime you can hit that 20-win plateau its means you have a pretty good team, and we have been fortunate enough to hit the mark for six seasons in a row now."
A unique sight came in the stat sheet this afternoon, as a pair of sisters combined to score 23 points in the victory. Senior Katie Scherder collected 13 first half points, while her younger sibling, Kelsey Scherder, followed up with a 10-point second half.
"It's probably the first time in program history we've had a pair of sisters score double-figures in each half of a game," Chapla said. "I'm really proud of Kelsey's performance today. We know what we have in Katie, she has been a consistent player for us all season, we were able to get her some open looks and she knocked them down. She is a really good shooter, but she hasn't had a lot of opportunities to display that this year. She is a good player, and she will have some pretty big shoes to fill over the next few years when Katie leaves this season."
Like there previous matchup, the Owls were able to use a significant advantage in points off the bench, as they outscored Stephens College (1-25, 1-19 AMC) 45-6 on the afternoon.
Seelena Neal led the Stars as she posted a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds in the loss.
William Woods will now take to the road to conclude the 2013-14 regular season, as they play two games against Hannibal-LaGrange and Freed-Hardeman. The two-game road trip starts on Thursday night, as the Owls travel to Hannibal, Mo., to take on the Lady Trojans. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m.
Chapla knows the importance of this season's final two games, and says that his team is already taken a playoff-like mentality to prepare for the trip.
"We know we do not have home court locked up yet in the first round, and that is what we will be playing for on this road trip," says Chapla. "We are going to play a much-improved Hannibal team on Thursday, they lost by four this afternoon and lost by six to Lyon earlier this week. For us, the playoffs start on Thursday, and that is the way we are treating the rest of this season so we will see how it plays out."
Check back with wwuowls.com for a full preview and recap of this and every game during the 2013-14 season.
