Baker Women’s Basketball Starts Hot, Falls Late to Culver-Stockton, 77-69

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. – A 16-point first-quarter lead for the Baker women's basketball team wasn't enough to hold off a surging Culver-Stockton team as BU fell, 77-69 in its final Heart of America Conference game of the calendar year here Saturday afternoon.

Baker had 10 different players score in the contest with Sophia Barrett dropping a team-high 17 points while Ainsley Tolson and Leah Van Weelden had 11 points apiece. Tolson also matched a season high with eight assists. Emma Cunningham grabbed a team-high nine boards for a Baker squad that outrebounded the visitors by a 31-22 margin.

BU opened up the game with some sizzling shooting, firing at a 60-percent clip both from the field (9-for-15) and from three-point range (3-for-5) in the first quarter. It began with consecutive layups from Barrett and Van Weelden before Hayley Numrich and Macey Frost connected on back-to-back threes to give Baker a 14-5 lead. Chassidy Weathers would go on to drain BU's third triple of the period at the 1:24 mark. 

The BU first-quarter run stretched all the way out to 23-7 before a Culver-Stockton three in the closing seconds put the visitors in double figures.

The script flipped in the second period with CSC responding in a big way. They scored 14 unanswered points while holding the home-side Wildcats without a field goal through the first seven minutes of the quarter. Van Weelden's triple at the three-minute mark broke the Baker scoring drought and baskets from Tolson and Emina Hadzihusejnovic gave BU a 30-25 advantage at halftime.

The visiting Wildcats extended their scoring frenzy into the second half, outscoring Baker 25-8 in the third quarter. Midway through the period, they took the lead twice only to have BU's Brooke Habeck tie the game in both instances with a pair of free throws and a layup. Culver-Stockton closed out its big third quarter with a 14-2 run to take a 50-38 lead into the final period.

A Frost three to begin the fourth shrunk the Baker deficit to single digits, but CSC countered by scoring 10 straight points.

Trailing 65-43 with 4:08 remaining, Baker looked to muster a late-game rally and went on an 8-0 run, highlighted by a couple of threes courtesy of Tolson and Van Weelden. However, a triple from Culver-Stockton on the next possession seemed to stamp out BU's comeback bid.

A trio of Baker threes – another one from Van Weelden and two from Barrett – kept things exciting down the stretch, but CSC remained steady at the free throw line, where they held a 16-point advantage (25-for-32) over BU (9-for-10), to clinch its 77-69 road win.

Baker moves to 5-6 overall on the season and 1-5 against conference teams. They take a break from Heart action to play an exhibition game against Division II opponent Rockhurst on Dec. 30 at 6 p.m. in Kansas City, Mo.

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