Women's Basketball | 1/3/2019 7:20:00 PM
Box Score Conway, Ark. – The second ranked Columbia College women's basketball team hit the road as they traveled to Conway, Arkansas to take on the Central Baptist College Mustangs in an AMC contest. The Cougars were eager to get back on the hardwood as they had not seen any game action since back on December 15th. Columbia tamed the Mustangs by a final score of 73-54. The Cougars improve to 11-2 on the season and 6-2 in conference play.
The game began with a scoreless first two minutes before the Cougars got on the board. Columbia went on a 9-0 run before the Mustangs could break the scoreboard midway through the first quarter. Central Baptist began to apply some full court pressure to the Cougars in the later end of the first, in an attempt to trip up Columbia. After one quarter of play the Cougars led 19-4.
To start the second quarter, the Mustangs went on a 6-0 run cutting the lead to 19-10. The Mustangs hung around that 10 point deficit for majority of the second. Columbia held the lead 36-23 at halftime, but would look to sharpen things up coming out of the break. Ashlee Marlatt led all scorers with 11 points, going 3-4 from three. The Cougars shot 48 percent from the field, 55 (6-11) from beyond the arc, and went 4-4 from the line. They were capitalizing off of Mustang mistakes as they scored 12 points off of 10 turnovers. Columbia was also winning the boards 22-12 after the first half.
Midway through the third the Cougars still maintained the lead 45-32 as the Mustangs called for a timeout. Central Baptist would again stick around that 10 point deficit area, but struggle to get past that hump as the quarter progressed. With under a minute to go the Mustangs cut it to nine, but the Cougars grabbed two free throws to lead 54-43 heading into the fourth. In the final quarter, the Mustangs continued to dig, but they could not catch the Cougars as Columbia went on to secure a 73-54 victory. The Cougars finished shooting 51 percent from the field, 47 from three, and 92 from the charity stripe.
The Cougars had four players in double digits including Mai Nienhueser who had 17 points, six rebounds, and three assists, Ashlee Marlatt had a season high 16 points, going 4-5 from three, Morgan Brandt recorded 13 points, nine rebounds, and four assists, and Geena Stephens tallied 10 points, going a perfect 4-4 from the field and 2-2 from the line. In addition, Jordan Alford also dished out four assists and grabbed five boards in the game. Brandt's four assists make her the 13th Cougar to reach the milestone of 200 career assists, while Marlatt's two assists put her in seventh place all-time with 249 career assists.
The women's basketball team will head to Batesville, Arkansas to face off with the 18th ranked Lyon College Scots on Saturday, January 5th in an AMC matchup. The game will tip-off at 1:00 p.m.
