MARSHALL, Mo. – The William Woods University women's basketball team was defeated by Missouri Valley College, 86-65, in the Owls season opener on Tuesday night.
 
The Owls struggled shooting the ball as they shot 34.9 percent from the floor in the contest. Peyton Greenlee led the Owls with 14 points in the contest, while Kaycee Gerald followed with 13 points. WWU went 6-for-19 from behind the arc.
 
The Owls return to action on Friday, November 3rd when they travel to Columbia, Mo. to participate in the Cougar Classic. The Owls square off against Culver-Stockton College at 1 p.m. in the first game of the Classic.
 
Game Flow
The Owls and Vikings came out and matched each other bucket for bucket to open the game. Bailey Rollins hit a three-pointer putting the Owls ahead, 3-2, early in the contest. WWU trailed 11-7 until Peyton Greenlee hit a three with 6:16 left in the first quarter, put the Owls down, 11-10. However, that would be the last points in the quarter for the Owls and they would trail 20-10 after one quarter of play.
 
WWUs cold shooting remained in the second quarter as they were held to nine points in the quarter. A two-point jumper for Rollins, put the Owls down 12, 26-14. William Woods continued to battle and a layup by Sommer Burgard put the Owls down 33-18, with 3:16 left in the half. WWU scored one point the remainder of the half and the Owls wen into halftime trailing the Vikings, 42-19.
 
The Owls continued to battle in the second half and a three-pointer by Rollins put the Owls down 17, 44-27, with 6:59 left in the third quarter. However, each run the Owls made the Vikings had an answer and they stretched the lead to 20, 51-31, after a Hilma Mededovic jumper in the paint. Kaycee Gerlad scored the last four points for the Owls in the third quarter and after three quarters of play the Owls trailed 59-42.
 
WWU started chipping away at the Vikings lead early in the fourth quarter as Greenlee had back-to-back two-point jumpers trimming the Vikings lead down to 13, 59-46. However, Missouri Valley stretched its lead back to 23 points after a jumper by Haley Meyer.  The Owls could not get the Vikings lead under 20 for the remainder of the contest and were defeated 86-65.
 
By the Numbers
65 – WWU scored 65 points in the first contest of the season
6 – William Woods hit six three pointers in the contest
14 – Peyton Greenlee led the Owls with 14 points
13 – Kaycee Gerald scored 13 points in the contest
6 – Gerald led the Owls with six rebounds
3 – The Owls had three players score in double figures
34.9 – WWU shot 34.9 percent from the floor in the contest