Grace Mitchell hit two free throws with 12 seconds left to give the ‘Roos a one-point lead and Samantha Waldron blocked Seattle’s shot on the defensive end, propelling the Missouri-Kansas City Women’s basketball team to a 62-61 win, their third straight home victory, over the Redhawks on Thursday night at the Swinney Recreation Center.
“We just battled tonight,” Head Coach Marsha Frese said. “We didn’t get the best performance from some of our kids tonight, but for 40 minutes they were locked in mentally and executed on the offensive end. We were able to make some defensive adjustments and stay focused down the stretch. I’m really proud of how they finished the game.”
With the win, the Kangaroos improve to 6-19 overall and 4-6 in the WAC, pushing them to fourth place, while Seattle falls to 7-19 on the season and 4-7 in the conference.
Aries Washington led the ‘Roos to the WAC victory, finishing with 19 points, a career-high seven assists and six rebounds, while Waldron added 17 points, including a career-high five three-point field goals, five rebounds, two assists a steal and a block, playing the entire 40 minutes.
“I knew that we were all playing for each other,” Washington said. “We all wanted to win and we’ve all been working hard. We were all thinking, ‘just keep competing’ and striving for the win.”
Mitchell, meanwhile, with 11 rebounds, her third straight game in double figures, adding six points and a team-high three steals.
The two teams battled early in the contest, with the ‘Roos holding just a one-point lead at 12-11 before Sierra Bone drilled a three from the left wing to start an 8-0 that stretched the lead to nine.
Seattle would cut the lead to five, but Waldron buried her fourth three of the first half to push the lead to a game-high 10, before UMKC took a 35-27 lead into halftime.
Coming out of the break, the Kangaroos extended the advantage to a second half-high of nine with 13:55 left, but the Redhawks began chipping away, cutting the lead to 48-47 with just over eight minutes remaining.
UMKC answered back, three times extending the lead to five, including at the 3:30 mark when Washington buried a jumper, but five of the next six went to the Redhawks closing the gap back to one with under a minute remaining.
The ‘Roos came up empty on their next possession and the Redhawks converted on the other end, giving them their first lead since scoring the game’s opening basket.
On the ensuing inbounds, though, Calli White found Mitchell on a breakaway, forcing SU to foul on the shot attempt, with Mitchell converting both attempts without touching the rim.
The Redhawks would get one final attempt, but were unable to get a shot off until the final second with Waldron blocking the attempt.
As a team, UMKC committed just eight turnovers, their second lowest of the season and second straight game in single digits, while scoring 14 points off 15 Redhawks turnovers.
The Blue & Gold will be back in action again on Saturday when they look for their fourth straight win at the Swinney Recreation Center against Bakersfield at 2 p.m.
“We are going to focus on ourselves on Saturday,” Frese added. “There is going to be a different opponent, with a different name on their chest, but so much of our performance is about our young players growing and getting better in their games.”