Kansas City, Mo. –
Lauren Friedrich scored a team-high 16 points and surpassed 500 career points at Columbia College, but the Cougars women's basketball team fell 66-47 at Avila University on Tuesday in Kansas City.
Avila picked up its first win to improve to 1-2, while Columbia evened its record at 2-2.
Ashtyn Klusmeyer added 12 points and eight rebounds for the Cougars, who shot a season-low 26.3 percent (15-57) from the field and had 17 turnovers.
Columbia hit just 1-of-10 from the field to start the contest and trailed 9-3 in the opening six minutes of play. The Cougars trailed 15-9 after one quarter after connecting on 4-of-17 (23.5 percent) from the field with four turnovers. Friedrich led Columbia with five points.
Avilla took a double figure lead at 19-9 with 9:22 left before half, before Friedrich canned back-to-back threes to trim the deficit to 19-15.
Klusmeyer drained her first three of the game with 14 seconds left to get the lead down to one (25-24), but Talia Dyson hit a bucket just before time expired to make it 27-24 at half.
Friedrich led Columbia with 13 points on 3-of-5 three-point shooting. The Cougars limited Avila to 35.7 percent (10-28) shooting, but was hampered by 10 turnovers and 10 fouls. Columbia did not make a free-throw (0-1), while Avila was 6-of-9.
Macie Harman scored four-straight points to get the Avila lead down to 38-31, but five-straight points by the Eagles got the lead back to double figures (43-31). Avila outscored Columbia 21-10 in the third quarter and led 48-34.
The Eagles took their largest lead of the game at 53-34 with 8:40 to play.
Honor Mannings led all scorers with 18 points, while Dyson added 13 points. Avila outscored Columbia 34-16 in the paint and had a 42-37 rebounding advantage.
The Cougars return home to host Viterbo University on Sunday, November 8 at 1 p.m.
NOTES: Columbia leads the all-time series 5-2 and had its two-game win streak snapped against the Eagles … Klusmeyer drained the 100
th three-pointer of her career … Friedrich has scored 739 points in her four seasons playing collegiate basketball.
