The William Jewell women's basketball team opened the Missouri Western Classic with a 89-59 win over Graceland University Friday night. The Cardinals move to 3-5 overall while Graceland falls to 1-6.
Despite opening the game with two turnovers on their first two posessions the Cardinals started the game extremely hot, shooting 71 percent from the floor in the first quarter, including hitting five of six three-point shots.Jewell burst out of the gate with a 17-4 run and were up by a score of 31-13 by the end of the first period.
By halftime the lead had grown by to 30 points at 50-20, after allowing Graceland just seven points in the second quarter. The Cardinals cooled off just a little in the second frame as they hit 61 percent from the floor and 50 percent from the three point line and outrebounded the Yellowjackets 26-20. The biggest help was the bench of Jewell outscoring Graceland 17-6.
The third quarter was a bit rocky for the Cardinals as they opened the half with a
Logan Antenen three before two offensive fouls from Antenen and
Blair Klostermann seemed to turn the momentum to the Yellowjackets. Graceland went on a run and outscored Jewell 21-13 in the third period.
Fortunately for the Cardinals, the first quarter lead combined with a 23-16 run over the final ten minutes allowed head coach
Jill Slominski to insert some of her reserves into the game in the fourth quarter. Sophomore
Ashley Pitrof came off the bench for her first appearance since November 14 to score eight points and pull down two rebounds in just five minutes of play.
On the night Jewell shot just over 50 percent from the floor as a team and outrebounded Graceland 53-37. The Cardinals were again excellent from the free throw line connecting on 12 of 13 shots for 92 percent.
Junior
Maddie Nelson led Jewell with a double-double of 14 points and 14 rebounds, to go along with four assists and two steals. Antenen and
Madison Campbell were also in double-figures with ten a piece. In all, 14 of 17 players who appeared in the game scored at least two points.
The Cardinals return to action tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. to wrap up the Missouri Western Classic against another former Heart of American Conference foe Evangel University.
