Box Score
FULTON, Mo. -- Blake French's old fashion three-point play with 51.1 seconds remaining snapped a 63-63 tie to catapult the William Woods University women's basketball team to a 71-63 American Midwest Conference Tournament Quarterfinal win over Park University on Thursday night in Anderson Arena.
With the game tied at 63-63, William Woods (22-9) guard Blake French drove down the lane for a layup, and drew a foul in the process, to give the Owls a 65-63 lead over Park University (16-14). The St. Charles, Mo., native knocked down the and-one free throw attempt, giving her team the 66-63 advantage. Â Senior Andraquay Quinnine helped WWU preserve that lead by going 5-of-6 from the free throw line in the closing seconds, to seal the 71-63 victory against the Lady Pirates.
"We found a way to win tonight," exclaimed Head Coach Dan Chapla after his team's AMC Quarterfinal win. "We were able to get to the free throw line tonight, we got there 23 times and only allowed Park to shoot five free throws for the entire game, so that was a huge difference in the outcome. We were lucky enough to make a couple of more plays down the stretch to help us advance. You have to credit Park tonight, they fought extremely hard and really made our team work for a lot of shots. Both squads battled for 40 minutes tonight, and we were fortunate enough to make some plays down the stretch."
William Woods put up one of their strongest performances tonight from the free throw line, as they were able to outscore Park University 19-3 from the charity stripe. Quinnine led the way for the Owls by connecting on five of her six attempts on the night en route to an 18-point performance.
Coach Chapla had some extremely high praises for his team's ability to convert from the line after the game, calling this year's squad the best free throw shooting team he has had in his six years at William Woods. The team's overall performance tonight backs up that statement, as they hit 19-of-23 from the charity stripe.
Along with her game-winning basket, French was able to match Quinnine's 18-point effort tonight, as the duo was two of three Owls to post double-figures in the scoring column.
"Both of them were outstanding tonight," Chapla said of the duo. "Blake has been great all season, and Quay has been just as good over the last three plus weeks. Quay had a big time three-point basket to give us the lead with about five minutes left, and obviously French's three-point play put us over the top tonight. Those two are a part of the reason we are able to advance to the semifinals, but I'm proud of our team tonight for being able to gut out a win."
WWU had an outstanding shooting performance in the victory, as they hit 58.5 percent of its shots tonight. Conversely, the Owls defense made Park University earn every point they got, by allowing the Lady Pirates to shoot 39.7 percent from the field.
Channell Mackey led the way for Park, as the junior scored a game-high 21 points, but was 8-of-21 from the field in her team's defeat.
"Mackey stepped up and hit some outside shots to keep her team in the game during the second half," said Chapla. "When she is hitting shots like she did tonight from 15 to 20 feet out, she is honestly unguardable. She is an all-conference type player, and she prove it tonight. She brought her team back single-handily late in the second half, but we were able to put some lengthy on her and make her work hard, and by the end you could tell she was tired because our pressure was getting to her."
Just like in their previous two regular season matchups, this game was tightly contested, as there were seven ties and three lead changes in the 40 minutes.
Both teams battled back and forth in the first half, but it was William Woods taking a three-point advantage into halftime at 31-28.
A Mackey three-point basket tied the game at 31-31 out of the break, but a 9-0 WWU run gave the Owls a nine point advantage at 40-31, forcing a Park timeout.
William Woods was able to maintain its advantage over the next few minutes, and took a game-high 10-point lead with 12:12 remaining, thanks to a Kennedy Volkart layup. The double-digit lead would not stick around for long, as Mackey drained back-to-back jumpers to pull the Lady Pirates within a bucket at 48-46 with nearly 10 minutes left to play.
Katie Scherder answered Mackey's jumpers on the next possession, as her layup gave the Owls a 50-46 advantage to force another Park timeout.
Out of the timeout, Mackey hit another pair of jumpers to pull her team even with William Woods at 50-50 with 8:59 showing on the game clock. Park University would take a brief lead at 55-54 after a Lauren LaBonde trifecta, but Dennisha Rice was able to knot the game back up at 55-55 after hitting 1-of-2 from the free throw line.
From there, both squads battled back-and-forth, as neither team was able to gain more than a three-point advantage over the next seven minutes. With the game tied at 63-63 in the game's final minute, Blake French was able to convert an old fashion three-point play to give her team a 66-63 edge.
Andraquay Quinnine helped the Owls secure the victory by hitting 5-of-6 from the charity stripe in the closing seconds to give her team the 71-63 AMC Quarterfinal win.
WWU advances to Friday's AMC Tournament Semifinals, as they will take to the road and face the conference's top seeded team, Freed-Hardeman University. This will be the second time in six days that these two squads will face-off, as they closed the regular season out against one another last Saturday.
The Owls suffered a hard fought 71-68 defeat in that game, but Coach Chapla is hoping that last Saturday's performance will give his team some confidence going into the semifinals against the No. 2 team in the NAIA.
"We have nothing to lose on Friday. Our goal was to get to this game, and we achieved that. We played a strong second half against them last weekend, and we know that Freed will be prepared to play us. It is going to take an incredible effort by every player that plays to knock off the No. 2-ranked team in the country. Friday is one more game for our seniors, for those kids it could be their last game. I told them that tonight, all we have promised is Friday, so we have nothing to lose. We had to gut-out a game tonight to get to the semifinals, and now that we are here, we are going to be prepared for another tough battle."
Freed-Hardeman advanced to the AMC Tournament Semifinals thanks to an 86-55 rout of Missouri Baptist earlier tonight. Tip-off for Henderson, Tenn., is set for 7 p.m.
Check back with wwuowls.com for a full preview and recap of this game.
