FULTON, Mo. - After a pre-game ceremony honoring her 1,000th career point,
Sydney Booker turned in a career game with 19 points and 15 rebounds as William Woods (13-10, 7-7 AMC) downed Harris-Stowe State University (2-18, 1-13 AMC) 69-51 on Tuesday night. Booker led all scorers in the contest, with
Macie Edwards and
Mariah Prince each chipping in a dozen for Woods.
After a messy opening tip that fell the way of Woods, Booker dropped in an easy layup for a 2-0 lead. The Owls missed their next seven shots, but fortunately Harris-Stowe was only able to make a layup and a triple over the stretch. After hitting a pair of free throws at the 6:57 mark,
Natalie Thomas sparked a 10-2 run for the Owls, with Prince finishing off the run with a layup to put WWU up 16-7 with 1:47 to play.
Prince finished off the quarter with a pick and pull jumper to put Woods up 20-11, with the Owls extending to a 24-13 lead over the first 90 seconds of the second quarter.
Harris-Stowe managed to close the gap to 24-18 on a Samara Swire layup with 7:32 in the half, but the Owls answered to push the lead back to 11 points by intermission, taking a 38-27 lead into the locker room.
Coming out of the break, both teams struggled to find a shooting groove, but Woods was still able to stretch the lead as far as 51-35 on a triple by
Peyton Dearing with 3:20 on the clock.
In the fourth quarter, it was obvious that the Owls were playing their third game in a six-day stretch as WWU managed just 4-of-14 shooting. Despite the field goal doldrums, the Owls connected on all four free throw chances and stepped up on defense to hold Harris-Stowe to just two field goals in 15 tries over the final 10 minutes.
WWU finished at a 38.1 percent (24-63) clip from the floor, holding the Hornets to a 27.9 percent (17-61) pace. The Owls dominated the rebounding battle, 53-37, and scored 30 points in the paint to just 12 for HSSU.
The Owls are on the road for their next two games, traveling to Cottey College on Thursday for a 5:30 p.m. tipoff.
