UMKC women’s basketball dominated Seattle in the first half, outscoring the Redhawks 38-11 over the first 20 minutes, including 21-3 in the first quarter, propelling them to a 64-43 WAC win on Saturday afternoon at the Swinney Recreation Center.
“Our defensive energy really set the tone today,” Head Coach Marsha Frese said. “Ceidra Coleman and Samantha Waldron got us off to a fast start and we fed off that energy for the rest of the game. I’m really proud of our effort on the defensive end and look forward to building off this win going forward.”
Samantha Waldron led the ‘Roos for the second straight game with 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field, including 3-of-8 from three-point range, with five rebounds, four assists and two steals, while Kiana Law finished with 11 points, hitting 4-of-5 from the field and 3-of-3 at the line, to go along with a team-high six rebounds, two steals and a block.
“We worked really well together today,” Waldron said. “We got stops on defense and that got us going on the offensive end. We worked the ball around, hit the extra person and our shots were going in. If we stay together on the defensive end things will come together for us.”
Aries Washington and Taylor Leathers, meanwhile, each finished with 10 points and four rebounds with Washington notching three assists and Leathers two, while Ceidra Coleman stuffed the stat sheet with six points and career-high’s of five rebounds, five assists and five steals, the most steals by a ‘Roo this season.
With the win, UMKC improves to 8-14 overall and 3-6 in the WAC, while Seattle U falls to 9-15 on the season and 3-6 in the conference.
Law got the scoring started for the ‘Roos with a pair of free throws and two possessions later Waldron buried her first three to make it 5-0. A steal and layup by Coleman and a jumper from Waldron pushed the lead to nine and back-to-back lay-ins from Husa off assists from Washington and Moore made it 13-0 before the Redhawks had cracked the scoreboard.
Seattle finally scored on a free throw with just 2:39 left on the first quarter but six more from UMKC made it an 18 point margin.
Seattle notched their first and only field goal of the quarter on the following possession, but Law beat the buzzer for the ‘Roos to extend the lead back to 18 at 21-3.
Washington opened the second quarter with a jumper and, after Seattle cut the lead to 14 midway through the half, the Kangaroos turned the heat back up, scoring the final 13 points of the half.
Law led the rally for UMKC with five points, including an old fashioned three-point play and Leathers capped it with a jumper off a Coleman assist to make it 38-11 at the half, the fewest points Kansas City had allowed in any half this season.
Coming out of the break, UMKC quickly put the game away, opening the half with a 10-2 run that stretched the lead to a game and season-high of 33 after two threes from Waldron and two jumpers from Leathers.
Seattle would whittle the lead down to 22 at the end of the third and get as close as 19 in the fourth, but the deficit was too much for the Redhawks to overcome as UMKC came away with the resounding 64-43 win.
As a team, the Kangaroos out-rebounded SU 39-25, finished with a season-high 13 steals and tied their season-high with 18 assists. Offensively, Kansas City shot 49.1 percent from the field, while limiting Seattle to just 35.3 percent shooting, including 8.3 percent (1-12) from long range.
The Blue & Gold will be back in action again next Saturday when they head to Edinburg, Texas for their penultimate road game of the year against UTRGV on Feb. 13 at 1 p.m.