Cougars Pick Up 20th win of Season

Columbia, Mo. – Mackenzie Hess scored a season-high 17 points and added nine rebounds to lead the Columbia College women’s basketball team to a 65-54 win over Harris-Stowe State University Tuesday at The Arena of Southwell Complex.
 
Columbia won its eighth-straight game to improve to 20-4 (15-2 AMC), while Harris-Stowe dropped its fifth-straight contest and fell to 4-18 (3-14 AMC). The Cougars have won 20 or more games in back-to-back seasons and 18 times in school history. The Cougars remain in a tie for first place in the AMC standings with University of Health Sciences & Pharmacy.
 
Allison Stiers and Mallory Shetley added 11 points each for Columbia, which hit 11 threes in the win and outrebounded Harris-Stowe 50-33.
 
Harris Stowe jumped out to an early 9-2 lead in the opening three minutes, but a three-pointer and a layup from Hess trimmed the lead to 11-7. Columbia trailed 20-16 after the first quarter, hitting just 6-of-17 (35.3 percent) from the field.
 
Hess’ three with 47 seconds left in the first ignited an 11-0 run as the Cougars gained a 24-20 advantage with 7:31 left in the second. Shetley had the hot hand in the second quarter with eight points as the Cougars outscored Harris-Stowe 17-10 in the quarter.
 
Hess and Shetley led the Cougars with eight points each as they led 33-30 at half.
 
Hess opened the third quarter with a pair of threes to get the Columbia lead to 39-30, but a 12-1 run gave the Hornets a 42-40 advantage. The Cougars missed eight-straight shots at one point. 
 
Stiers spearheaded an 8-0 run to end the third quarter with a pair of threes to get the lead back for the Cougars at 48-42. Columbia hit four threes in the third quarter. Back-to-back threes from Hess and Sydney Reddin got Columbia’s lead to 56-45 with 6:28 to play.
 
Destiney Amaefula (15), Samara Swire (13) and Autumn Brown (11) and scored in double figures for Harris-Stowe in the loss.
 
The Cougars step out of conference play on Thursday, Feb. 9 at Iowa Wesleyan University. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m. in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
 
NOTES: Columbia is 14-1 this season at home … The Cougars have won 13-straight meetings against Harris-Stowe and lead the all-time series 44-5 … Columbia has hit 10 or more threes in a game eight times this season.