The Basics

Score: Evangel 54, William Woods 62

Location: Springfield, Mo. (AGFinancial Arena) 

Records: Evangel (0-3), William Woods (2-3) 

Box Score 

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Evangel Women's Basketball hosted the William Woods Owls on Wednesday (Nov. 13) evening, looking to take their first win of the season. After a very cold first half of offense, the Valor warmed up and nearly fought their way to a comeback after trailing by as much as 17, but fell short, 54-62.

Neither team could get on the board to open the first quarter, as William Woods scored the first basket of the evening after over two and a half minutes of play. The Owls jumped out to a 6-0 lead on Evangel with a jumper from Lexi Berry stopping the run for WWU. Despite Evangel narrowing the lead down to just three points with three minutes remaining in the first quarter, the Owls closed the quarter on a 8-0 run to take a 19-8 lead into the second period.

The Owls took a pair of fifteen point leads in the second quarter, but a 6-0 Valor run, fueled by back to back baskets from Kamie Jenkins, helped slow the WWU offense. William Woods took a 12-point lead with just two minutes remaining in the half and a free throw and three pointer at the buzzer from Resa Martin made it a 28-20 halftime deficit for Evangel.

Evangel came out of the halftime break with a strong offensive pace, drawing the game down to just a six point deficit, but an 11-0 WWU run gave the Owls their largest lead of the evening, 46-29. Three consecutive three pointers, all coming from different Valor athletes, helped the Valor narrow the WWU lead to 10 points at the end of the third quarter, 50-40.

William Woods opened the fourth quarter up with an early three to make it a 53-40 ballgame, but this would be the last bucket for the Owls for nearly eight minutes of play. Kamie Jenkins went to work in the paint, scoring seven of Evangel's 12 points to make it just a one point game with 2:23 remaining in the game. A layup from Ellison Mehrhoff after a pair of Owls free throws again made it just a one point game with 1:46 remaining, but from there, the Valor grew cold, not scoring another point while WWU scored seven, to take a 62-54 win over Evangel.

QUOTABLE 

"Turnovers and poor shooting are a bad combination to be successful. We are our own worst enemy right now. We have to dig deeper to get out of this rut," stated Head Coach Jim Middleton. "I am proud of our bench tonight. I saw some good things from our new players. They will start getting more playing time for their efforts."

NOTABLE 

• Kamie Jenkins led the Valor with 18 points and 15 rebounds in the loss.

• Alyssa McCarty recorded three assists to lead Evangel.

• Evangel's shooting woes continued on Wednesday, as they made just 33.9 percent of their shots and 26.3 percent of their three pointers.

• William Woods scored 24 points off of Evangel's 23 turnovers.

For the latest information on Evangel Athletics, visit Facebook at Facebook.com/EvangelValor, Twitter (@EvangelValor), or EvangelAthletics.com. Fans can also receive updates on their favorite EU teams by downloading the Evangel Athletics Gameday App through the App Store or Google Play.  

—#OneValor—