WICHITA, Kan. – The (RV) Friends University Falcons came soaring out of the gate and secured their ninth straight victory with a 79-61 win over the Ottawa University Braves today (Jan. 3) inside the Garvey Center. Friends is now 13-1 on the season and 7-1 in the KCAC, tied for second place with Sterling College and one game behind undefeated Evangel University.
The Falcons set a strong defensive tone early, stifling the Braves to just one field goal in their first 12 attempts of the game.
That allowed the Falcons to take command and build a 21-2 lead on a four-point play by Katie Weiss by the 3:36 mark of the opening period.
Friends led 25-11 at the end of the first quarter before a pair of buckets by Abigail Barr sparked a 7-0 run to begin the second period that resulted in a 21-point cushion.
The Braves then chipped away and shaved seven points off the deficit to come within 40-26 at the break.
Ottawa climbed as close as 10 in the third quarter, but the Falcons managed to create more separation and built the lead back to 19 at 59-40 heading to the fourth.
The Falcons continued to pull away and got another three by Weiss and a bucket from Ella Brown to gain their largest lead of the game.
Aaliyah Brown (six points) and Dominique Schutte (eight points) helped the Braves make one final push with a 17-4 run to come within 70-59 with 2:46 remaining, but a bucket by Heaven Gilbert and two straight makes from Lauryn McIver halted the spurt and closed out the victory for the Falcons.
"It's always nice to start the new year off with a win," said Friends women's basketball head coach Dean Jaderston. "We got off to the best start we've had this year, and it was at both ends of the floor. Our intensity and execution were what we hoped for. Now the goal is to sustain that for 40 minutes. We do keep getting better and better as the season goes on and I'm excited to see where we're going to get to when it's all said and done."
Barr led a balanced Falcon scoring effort with 17 points and Rayland Garner added 14 points with three steals. McIver produced her typical, solid stat line of 12 points, six rebounds, six assists and three thefts, while Weiss finished with 10 points and hit three treys.
Brown, Shutte and Clare Williams each scored 10 points to pace the Braves (8-6, 3-5 KCAC), with McKinley Kruger pulling down a game-high seven rebounds and Hailey Rademan leading the team with four assists.
The Falcons were outrebounded 41-35 and outscored 30-28 in the paint and 12-6 in second chance points but offset that by outshooting the Braves 50.9 percent (29-of-57) to 35.9 percent (23-of-64) overall from the field and 40 percent (8-of-20) to 26.3 percent (5-of-19) from three-point distance.
Friends will now hit the road for three straight games, starting Wednesday evening (Jan. 7) for a big matchup at Sterling at 6 pm in Sterling, Kan.
