COLUMBUS, MS – The Principia women's basketball team traveled south to Mississippi on Thursday as they came back to defeat the MUW Owls 55-51 to stay unbeaten in conference play this season.
This game followed the Principia women's familiar trend of a dominant third quarter after a slow start. The Panthers had one of their worst first halves of the season in this one, only scoring 17 points and finding themselves down by 15 at halftime. The final six minutes of the second quarter were especially rough as MUW went on a 15-2 run before
Ariana Williams stopped the bleeding with a two-point jumper right before the break.
Principia came out a completely different team in the third quarter and flipped the script by outscoring the Owls 19-2 in the third. The Panthers scored the first 13 points after halftime before the Owls finally made a lay up with 2:30 left in the quarter. After Williams got Principia back within two points,
Taylor Brown scored a huge and-1 bucket to give the Panthers their first lead of the game. Principia didn't look back from there as they would hold the lead the rest of the way. The Owls got within one in the final minute, but some clutch defense and made free throws allowed the Panthers to close out the victory.
The Panthers were once again led by the dynamic duo of Williams and Brown, who scored 16 and 15 points, respectively. As usual, Williams stuffed the stat sheet finishing with 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. The win moves Principia to 5-0 in SLIAC play at the top of the conference standings.
The team will have a quick turnaround as they head straight to Lyon College in Arkansas for 1:00 pm tip off on Saturday.
