Women's Basketball | 2/28/2017 3:54:00 PM

Columbia, Mo. – This afternoon the NAIA national office announced its sixth Division I Women's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 Poll for the 2016-17 season. The Cougars, who were ranked 12^th in the last poll, moved up one spot to 11th in this poll after going 3-1 in their last four games with their only loss coming to the top ranked Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) University Lions on February 16^th.

Columbia College capped off a great regular season on Saturday after defeating William Woods (Mo.) University on senior night to improve to 25-5 on the season and 19-5 in conference play. As a result of their outstanding regular season, the Cougars locked up the third seed in the AMC Championships and will take on Harris-Stowe State (Mo.) University in the quarterfinals of the tournament on Wednesday, March 1^st at 7 p.m. in Columbia, Missouri.

The Cougars have been playing great basketball all season long and currently rank third in the NAIA in 3-point field goals made per game (9.233) and total 3-point field goals made (277). In addition to being one of the top 3-point shooting teams in the NAIA, Columbia also ranks in the top 10 nationally in 3-point field goal percentage defense (0.261), scoring defense per game (55.867), turnover margin (4.733), and scoring margin (20.033).

The Cougars will have their hands full against the Hornets in the quarterfinals as they split the season series with Harris-Stowe taking the first game in Columbia by a final score of 73-65 and losing the second game by a final score of 68-41 in St. Louis. The Hornets currently rank in the top 10 in the NAIA in several categories including field goal percentage defense (0.332), 3-point field goal percentage defense (0.261), scoring defense per game (55.633), and total rebounds (1,309). Harris-Stowe is led by Brionna Taylor who leads her team in points per game (14.07), rebounds per game (7.30), and blocks per game (0.97) while ranking 34^th in the NAIA in field goal percentage (0.481).