Women’s Basketball Picks Up Double-Digit Victory at Home with 63-46 Win over Culver-Stockton

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. – Capitalizing on a tenacious defensive effort, Baker women's basketball defeated Culver-Stockton, 63-46 on Saturday afternoon in the Collins Center to earn BU's first conference win of the new year.

Baker held the visitors to just 46 points in the game which marks the lowest scoring total for a BU opponent this season. Meanwhile, offensively, Baker matched its highest outing since its last victory when BU beat Peru State, 85-75 back on Dec. 6.

Emma Cunningham turned in a solid performance on both ends of the floor, recording her fourth double-double of the season with a team-high 16 points and 10 rebounds, while racking up four blocks. Jaelyn Two Hearts and Leah Van Weelden combined to tally five of Baker's six 3-pointers in the game with Two Hearts finishing with 15 points and Van Weelden going for 14 points. Sophia Barrett filled up the stat sheet in her 36 minutes of action with six points, six steals, five rebounds and four blocks.

Back-to-back threes ignited things early for BU with Two Hearts draining her first three of the game and Alyssa Morris following suit to give Baker a quick 12-6 lead in the first period. BU's pressure led to breakaway layups in the final minute with Barrett and Matalina Ochoa picking pockets on consecutive possessions to give Baker a 16-9 lead at the end of the opening quarter.

Two Hearts kicked off the second quarter with a shot from downtown to make it a 10-point advantage for BU and Cunningham added another fast-break layup a little later to make it, 28-16 with just over five minutes left until halftime. Baker held C-SC without a field goal in the final six minutes of the first half and scored five unanswered points to take a 33-19 lead at the intermission.

Baker saw its run go out to a 9-0 stretch with Ochoa and Cunningham knocking down the first shots of the second half. Culver-Stockton responded with 11 straight points to cut BU's lead to single digits with a three by their sharpshooter Avery Oetting making it, 37-30 with 4:07 left in the third quarter.

Another three by Oetting brought the visitors within four but Van Weelden, a senior from Marion, Iowa, delivered back-to-back triples to squash the C-SC rally and swing the momentum back to the Baker bench with the home-sided Wildcats taking a 45-35 lead into the final quarter.

With both sides cooling off to start the fourth, Two Hearts sank her third three of the game to make it a 13-point advantage for BU. The Baker defense held Culver-Stockton to just five points in the final five minutes as BU closed out its early year homestand with a 63-46 victory.

Baker heads out for its first road trip of 2024, beginning with a game against Graceland on Wednesday, Jan. 10 at 5:30 p.m. in Lamoni, Iowa.

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