HANNIBAL - For the second time this season, the battle between William Woods and Hannibal-LaGrange came down to the last play of the game. Unfortunately for the Owls, the result was the same, as WWU fell to the Trojans 75-73 in overtime on Saturday.

HLG got off to a quick start, but the Owls responded with a 6-point spurt and led for most of the first half. WWU wasn't able to stretch out past a four-point lead in the opening stanza, however, as the Trojans were able to pull back into striking distance.

At the close of the half, however, the Owls hit a bit of a cold streak with the Trojans taking advantage by reeling off a 10-2 run to leave WWU trailing 27-35 with 1:27 to go. Katie Scherder (Bowling Green, Mo.) closed out the half with five straight points - two free throws and a three-pointer at the buzzer to close the gap to 32-37 at the break.

The Owls started the second half with a 10-4 run, powered by eight from Ashlee Taylor (Dexter, Mo.). HLG stretched the margin back to five, but back-to-back treys from Olivia Storjohann (Eldridge, Iowa) put WWU back in front 46-45 with 13:55 to go.

WWU continued to push, taking the margin out to 56-48 with 10:37 left. The Owls sank four consecutive free throws, as Miranda Loesch (Lohman, Mo.) drew a foul before the HLG coach was whistled for his second technical foul of the game. Storjohann sank both of the technical free throws after Loesch knocked down the foul throws.

Hannibal-LaGrange was able to whittle away at the lead over the next several minutes, eventually regaining the lead with just over four minutes to go.

Down 61-65 with 2:11 to go, the Owls got another trey from Scherder to pull within one, and picked up defensive stops on the next two HLG possessions before a jumper from Taylor put the Owls up 66-65 with 36 seconds to play.

The Trojans answered with a three, leaving WWU with the ball and a two-point deficit with 13.5 seconds to go. Megan Aubuchon (Old Monroe, Mo.) was able to find an open look to tie the game at 68-68, with the WWU defense locking down and sending the contest to overtime.

Trailing 73-74 with less than 10 seconds to go in the extra frame, WWU found itself with one final chance as Kyra Smith missed the front end of a one-and-one. The Owls drove the length of the court and as Andrews pushed through traffic she couldn't get the bounce on her layup attempt and HLG grabbed the rebound. Even after a quick foul and a bit of luck as Ashleigh Spencer made only the first of the two bonus FTs, WWU couldn't get a shot off before time expired.

The Owls shot an outstanding .517 from the floor in the second half to finish the game at a .456 clip, and rattled in 6 of 14 from three-point range. Storjohann finished with a career-high 16 points, one of four WWU players in double figures. Taylor and Scherder each chipped in 12, with Loesch adding 11. Spencer led all scorers with 24 for HLG, with Ashley Wilson adding 17.

William Woods falls to 16-7 on the year and 6-2 in AMC play. The Owls return home for a 5:30 p.m. contest against Park University.

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 to see the full box score.

ROLLA - The Lady Miners (14-6, 9-4 GLVC) scored the game's first 10 points and 16 of the first 18 forcing UIS (8-13, 3-10 GLVC) to take two timeouts in the first five minutes of the contest. S&T made 7 of its first 11 field goal attempts and never looked back.

The Prairie Stars cut it to 10 twice but each time the Lady Miners answered. The lead grew to 39-20 on a layup by Hailee Parks (Sullivan, Mo./Sullivan) with less than three minutes to play in the opening frame. UIS cut it to 16 on a layup by Mallory Beck with 1:35 to play, but Toni Knar (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) buried her third trey of the half extending the margin back to 19 with 1:18 left.  Bailey Beale made a pair of free throws with 0:35 left to make it a 17 point contest at the break.

S&T shot 65.4 percent (17-for-26) in the opening stanza and was led by Knar's nine points. Parks, Courtney Kemp (Fredricktown, Mo./Fredricktown) and Katelyn Heil (Dexter, Mo./Dexter) added eight each. The Lady Miners were 5-of-6 from downtown and 7-for-9 at the charity stripe.

EASTON, Pa. - Lafayette held a nine-point lead at halftime and never looked back, defeating Navy 62-41 on Saturday afternoon at Kirby Sports Center. Nick Petkovich scored 11 points off the bench to lead three Lafayette players in double figures.

Lafayette (10-13, 5-3) limited Navy to a season-low 41 total points and held the Mids (3-19, 0-8) to 17 second-half points, tying the lowest scoring output by an opponent in any half this season. Both previous lows occurred at Holy Cross on Jan. 19. The last time Lafayette held and opponent to 41 points or fewer was Jan. 14, 2004 when it defeated Army 76-40.

Following a sloppy start by each team through the first 12 minutes of the opening half, Petkovich gave Lafayette a 19-12 lead after scoring on consecutive possessions. The senior connected on his second trifecta of the contest and then followed Jim Mower’s miss with a rebound and tip-in to give Lafayette a seven-point lead at 6:30.

Tony Johnson forced Navy’s 11th turnover of the first half, streaked ahead of the pack and laid-in a basket to give Lafayette a 25-15 lead with less than four minutes remaining. After Jordan Sugars hit one of two from the line, Ryan Willen knocked down a three to put the home team up 28-16. The Leopards took a 33-24 lead into the break after shooting 52 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes.

Willen’s two handed lay-in at 14:52 handed Lafayette a 42-28 advantage. Two possessions later, Willen found Les Smith open in the corner where Smith drained a three to give the Leopards a 17-point lead and cap a 10-0 spurt. The Mids scored the next five points to pull within 12, but wouldn’t get any closer during the final 12 minutes.

After Navy’s mini 5-0 run, Lafayette scored 10 straight points, punctuated by Petkovich’s straightaway triple, to take its largest lead to that point at 55-33.

Willen and Seth Hinrichs each finished with 10 points in the victory while Johnson scored eight points and dished out six assists. Willen also grabbed a game-high six rebounds. Lafayette won the battle on the glass, 30-25, and forced 20 Navy turnovers.

Lafayette returns to the floor on Wednesday when it travels to West Point, N.Y. to play Army at 7 p.m.

Notes:

Joey Ptasinski scored five points before leaving with an ankle injury in the first half.

Lafayette’s five blocked shots tied a season-high in Patriot League contests this year.

Lafayette improves to 6-0 when holding opponents to 20 or fewer field goals and 7-0 when opponents shoot less than 40 percent.

Navy’s leading scorer and rebounder, sophomore J.J. Avila, did not play in the game.

Click here to see a breakdown of the game's stats.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla.- After a rough first game where not much seemed to go right for the Palm Beach Atlantic baseball team, the Sailfish turned to junior right-hander T.J. Harbuck in hopes of earning a Saturday split against Warner University. Fresh off an 11-4 defeat, the Fish responded by witnessing a solid Harbuck outing that saw the Ormond Beach native go into the final inning with a no-hitter intact before settling for a combined shutout with closer Alejandro De Moya and a 4-0 PBA win.

With the split the Fish close out their first week with a 2-1 record following their exciting 3-2 win on Thursday night in the team's season-opening victory over Lynn University at Roger Dean Stadium.

It will be a quick turnaround for the team as they will travel to Ave Maria University on Monday, February 6th to square off against the Gyrenes for a 2 pm matinee. Those that cannot make the game can tune in to an audio broadcast on the Sailfish Sports Network.

Game One

Trailing 1-0 following a first-inning run, the Fish fell behind by a big margin in the third inning as the Royals (3-3) tagged PBA starter Andres Lopez (0-1) for six runs (five earned) that included an Adrian Kaplan 2-run double that would chase Lopez from the game.

PBA reliever Jeremiah Cothiere would register a strikeout to the first batter he faced in the inning before allowing a 2-run single to Brandon Kirby that broke the inning and game open.

The Royals would tack on single runs in each of the next four innings as they pushed their advantage to as large as ten runs. John McVey, Kaplan, and James Krupa provided the big blows with solo homeruns in the fourth, fifth, and seventh innings respectively.

PBA got on the board in the sixth as pinch-hitter Brooks Fleming drilled a two-run homer to left-field while junior Matt Perkowski slammed his first round-tripper in a PBA uniform by going opposite-field to left-center for a two-run shot in the seventh inning.

Following Lopez and Cothiere were freshman Robbie Pettet, senior Kenny Frosch, and freshman Kennie Silvestri each logging an inning in relief.

Dylan Heiring went five innings for the Royals to pick up his second win of the young season as he struck out three batters while walking two.

Cody Higgins was the only PBA batter to register a multi-hit game as he finished 2-for-4 with a run scored.

Game Two

After a rough go of things in the opening game, the Sailfish saw a much better team performance in the night-cap starting with their hurler in Harbuck.

Harbuck finished with six strikeouts and didn't allow a hit until a leadoff double in the top of the seventh inning by WU left-fielder Dylan Gross.

An infield hit two batters later would officially end Harbuck's evening as the Fish turned to De Moya who retired the next two hitters, one on a foul popup and the final batter on a strikeout as he nailed down his first save.

Perkowski followed up his game one where he went deep with a 2-for-3 showing in the second game while Nick Natale also produced a multi-hit game at 2-for-3.

The Fish got on the board in the first inning for the second time in three games this season as senior Luis Mejia smoked a ball back up the box for a single that plated Perkowski who doubled earlier in the frame.

Natale provided the biggest offensive blow of the ballgame when he smacked a two-out, two-run triple into the right-centerfield gap that one-hopped the fence and plated both Mejia and Travis Murray. Matt Civetti added in a RBI single to plate Natale for the 4-0 lead.

The tandem of Harbuck and De Moya would take care of the rest as PBA held on for the victory.

Aaron Kehres earned the loss for the Royals as he went four innings while allowing seven hits and four runs while Warner got solid relief pitching from James Krupa and Ryan Ruble who each tallied a pair of strikeouts in their inning each of work.

Click here to see the box score for both games.

ZALMA - Traveling sports teams are all the craze these days.  It's a very busy lifestyle for these families, yet it's filled with lots of fun and rewards for everyone.  

A group to keep your eyes on in the future is the Dexter Racers, a third grade traveling team.  The Racers have been dominant against their opponents this season, posting a 9-0 record.