FULTON, Mo.—The (RV) William Woods University women's basketball team returns to its home floor on Saturday afternoon, as the Owls look for its eighth win in a row against Williams Baptist College. Tipoff will start at 2 p.m.
The Owls (15-5; 11-4 AMC), are coming off an impressive 75-66 road win over Hannibal-LaGrange University on Thursday, where the team shot 41.9 percent from the floor and were led by
Nia Lateju, as the junior scored a team-high 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting.
Sophomore
Kennedy Volkart contributed 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting and added a team-high eight rebounds, while
Blake French scored 15 points, including going 9-of-10 from the free throw line.
Destani Stensrud was the fourth Owl to reach double-figures, having 12 points and went a perfect 3-of-3 from downtown.
"It was great to get a road win, as Destani (Stensrud) and Blake (French) both made big plays the last five minutes, which separated us from them," said head coach
Dan Chapla. "Having said that though, Nia (Lateju) and Kennedy (Volkart) were just outstanding, as there percentages were great with being able to keep us in it the first half."
With the win over the Lady Trojans, the Owls tied its season-high with its seventh consecutive victory. During the streak, the team is posting 75.0 points per game, are shooting 42.5 percent from the floor, and outrebounding its opponents 275-190.
Leading the way the past seven games has been the duo of Volkart and Lateju, as they are each averaging 10.8 points per game and have combined for 73 rebounds. Lateju is also hitting 52.2 percent of her shots and Volkart is draining 46.5 percent of her shots from the floor.
In her two games back from injury thus far, Stensrud is scoring 10.5 points per game, shooting 61.5 percent from the floor and has forced five steals.
"It's huge to have Destani back, as you're talking about a two year starter, who is a very talented player," Chapla said. "We didn't have her for three weeks, we sustained that, and it was good to see her go 3-of-3 from three point last night."
French, a St. Charles, Missouri, native, is putting up 9.0 points to go along with her 42.5 field goal percentage, while
Dennisha Rice is fourth on the team in scoring the last seven games, averaging 8.7 points, while adding 18 assists.
On the season, the Owls are scoring just over 71 points per game (71.9), while shooting 42.1 percent from the floor. With Lateju's performance against HLG, the Norwalk, California, native, moved her season average up to 12.4 points per game and is second on the team in rebounds (107).
French is averaging 11.3 points, while shooting a team-high 52.4 percent from the floor and 81.4 percent from the charity stripe. Volkart upped her season average to 9.9 points per game, while continuing to lead the team in rebounds (119) and blocks (23).
The last time these two teams' met was back on December 6
th and the Owls were able to defeat the Lady Eagles (8-12; 7-8 AMC), 64-51.
WWU shot 41.4 percent from the floor and were led by Volkart having a career-high 21 points on 10-of-18 shooting and added a game-high nine boards.
"Kennedy is a player that is very skilled around the bucket," Chapla said. "She has been up-and-down a little bit this year so far, but has been better as of late. When she is scoring though and getting some easy points, it opens some other things for us as well."
He added, "We would love for her to have the same game she had down in Arkansas, but again when is playing well, things get easier for us offensively."
Williams Baptist, dropped its second game in a row in its last time out, as they fell to Missouri Baptist on the road, 61-56. The team shot 37.9 percent from the field and were led by Da'Monique Brown scoring 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting. Porche Hall was the final Lady Eagle to reach double-figures in points, as the forward added 10.
On the season, WBC is averaging 63.5 points through 20 games thus far and are shooting 42.7 percent from the field. Meagan Goza has paced the offense in 18 starts, as she is scoring a team-high 12.1 points, while also leading the Lady Eagles in free throw percentage (75.0) and rebounds (148).
Alisha Stone is averaging 9.5 points, while Brown is scoring 9.0 points per game and is shooting 45.5 percent from the field.
Fans make sure to stay updated on wwuowls.com tomorrow night for a full recap and score from Anderson Arena.
