ST. LOUIS - Despite holding a minimal lead at the halftime break, the Spartans faced a minor setback in the third quarter putting them down by three to start the final frame, and William Woods was able to pull ahead with seconds remaining forcing the Spartans to take a buzzer beater that did not fall, pinning a 47-45 loss on Missouri Baptist.

The first quarter featured a handful of runs for both sides as the Spartans jumped out to a five point lead before the Owls tied it up, and Missouri Baptist ended the quarter on a 6-2 run, making it 15-11.

Missouri Baptist ripped off a 7-0 run off of buckets from Aliyah Williams, Sophia Horton, and Orian Anderson to give them a 22-13 lead early in the second frame. William Woods was able to work their way back closer to MBU, and the conference foes went into halftime with Missouri Baptist up 24-20.

Following the break, the Owls were hot as they went on an 11-0 run, and held a three point lead over the Spartans going into the fourth quarter. The Spartans took a 41-40 lead with just over three minutes left in the contest before a WWU free throw knotted the game at 41 apiece. 

With under a minute left the game was tied at 43, and the Owls took the lead off a layup with 23 second left, but Riley Jansen answered with a wide open layup on an inbounds pass from under the basket coming from Horton with 15 seconds left. 

The Owls drew up a play and got a tough layup that went in with seven seconds left, giving the Spartans a chance to answer, but a jump shot through a lot of contact did not fall through the hoop pinning a loss on Missouri Baptist 47-45.

The contest came down to the wire and featured some great basketball on both sides. Horton and Jansen both tallied double-digit points for the Spartans tonight with 15 and 11, respectively. Kayleigh Winch had six points, six rebounds, and six blocks throughout the course of the game.

WWU forced the Spartans into 17 turnovers that led to 19 points on the other end of the court, but Missouri Baptist did their part on the defensive end only giving up 47 points, blocking nine shots, and only giving up six second chance points.

Spartan Stat Leaders

Points: Horton (15)

Blocks: Winch (6)

Rebounds: Mariana Cubero (9)

Records

Missouri Baptist: 4-12 (4-6 AMC)

William Woods: 7-7 (5-3 AMC)

Next Game

Missouri Baptist will continue their conference homestand with a Saturday matinee when they host Columbia at 1:00 PM.