Columbia, Mo. – The No. 1 seed Columbia College women's basketball team secured its second-consecutive and seventh overall American Midwest Conference (AMC) Tournament championship with a 73-56 win over No. 2 seed Missouri Baptist University Monday at The Arena of Southwell Complex.
Columbia won its 14th-straight game to improve to 26-4, while Missouri Baptist fell to 24-5 and had its seven-game win streak snapped.
Columbia and Missouri Baptist both receive an automatic bid to the 2023 NAIA Championship. The bracket will be announced on Thursday, March 2, followed by first-round play on Tuesday, March 7, at a site to be announced.
DeLaney Horstman recorded the eighth double-double of her career with a career-high 20 points and 11 rebounds, while
Mallory Shetley (15),
Abby Backes (14) and
Allison Stiers (12) also scored in double figures. The Cougars hit 18-of-23 from the free-throw line in the win and out-rebounded Missouri Baptist 45-31.
Missouri Baptist jumped out in front 9-2 in the opening three minutes, making four of its first five shots from the field. Hanna Ferguson scored five-straight points to highlight a 7-0 run by the Cougars to tie the score at 9-9.
The Spartans took a 22-14 lead after one quarter, connecting on 9-of-15 (60.0 percent) from the field. Columbia was limited to 6-of-19 (31.6 percent) shooting in the first quarter.
Stiers connected on the only three of the first half for Columbia to trim the MBU advantage to 22-17, and then three-straight jumpers from Horstman tied the game at 26-26.
Missouri Baptist took a 34-33 lead at half after a bucket from Kasey Rice at the buzzer. Columbia shot 40.0 percent (12-30) in the first half, as Horstman and Shetley scored nine points each. Lauren Ebert and Rice had eight points apiece for the Spartans.
Back-to-back threes from Backes gave the Cougars a 39-38 lead, and then five-straight points by Horstman pushed the Cougar lead to 46-41 lead with 1:16 left in the third.
Columbia took a 50-44 lead into the fourth, limiting the Spartans to one field goal in the final 4:57 of the third. Missouri Baptist hit just 4-of-13 (30.8) percent from the field in the quarter. Backes had eight points in the third quarter as Columbia outscored Missouri Baptist 17-10.
The Cougars opened the fourth quarter on a 9-2 run to extended the lead to 59-46 with 4:19 to play.
Ebert scored 13 points to lead Missouri Baptist, who shot 35.5 percent (22-62) from the field and had nine blocks in the loss.
NOTES: Columbia leads the all-time series with Missouri Baptist 44-2, and the Cougars won all three meetings this year ... The Cougars are 18-1 at home this season ... Columbia has won 26 or more games 14 times in school history.
