Avila Swelters Southwestern, Pulls Away for Road Win

WINFIELD, Kan. – The Eagle defense dominated early and the offense came in clutch late, leading Avila women's basketball (9-13, 7-8 KCAC) to a critical 67-52 victory over Southwestern (0-20, 0-15 KCAC) on Wednesday evening in Winfield.

As the season officially heads into the stretch run, Avila women's basketball finds itself right in the thick of an extremely tight middle of the KCAC pack. Entering action on Wednesday the Eagles were one of six teams with between six and nine conference wins to their name, with those six squads duking it out for what looks to be the final four spots of the 8-team KCAC Tournament field.

With standings that even, there aren't many must-win games for any of those teams in the mix. Well, Wednesday's game, against a team that plays its home games in a town called Winfield but has yet to record a win of any kind this season, certainly qualified as a must-win. And for Remy Wolfe's squad, it's mission accomplished: with the victory, her Eagles now have a critical seventh KCAC victory, more wins than they recorded in all competitions in her first season at the helm last year.

Both teams got off to a dismal start offensively Wednesday, and Southwestern claimed a 10-9 edge after the opening ten minutes of play. In the second ten minutes however, the Eagles took flight while the Moundbuilders got left in the dust: Avila held Southwestern to just four points in the second quarter and built up a 23-14 lead at the halftime break.

The Eagles extended that edge out by another four points going into the fourth quarter, and seemed in full control of the game after an excellent third period on the offensive end. But the Builders made things interesting: after scoring just 14 points in the first half the home team scored 19 in both of the final two quarters, and cut the score down to 46-40 with just north of two minutes gone in the fourth.

Southwestern had made it a game, but after that Avila made no mistake. The Eagles took firm control from there and finally put the Builders to bed in the fourth quarter, coasting to a 67-52 road victory.

Christy Wiebe led all players with 24 points and 11 rebounds for Southwestern, but no other Builder scored more than seven points, and AU held SC to just 25% from the field. Despite an unusually poor three-point shooting day, Avila still shot north of 45% from the field, a stark contrast to their opponents' field goal futility. Four Eagles scored in double figures, and three finished just shy of a double-double: Madilyn Melton led the way with 17 points, most of which came in the second half, and eight rebounds; Marlie Wright scored 11 points with nine rebounds; Hannah Pinkston scored 12 with eight; and Hannah Smith scored 13 with four assists.

Up next, Avila women's basketball returns home to Mabee Fieldhouse to welcome Tabor, one of the KCAC's top teams, to town. The Avila women kick off the conference doubleheader at 2 PM with the men to follow at 4; as always, you can watch all the action live and for free on the Avila Sports Network with Joe Van Amburg on the call from Kansas City.