(Joplin, MO) – Iowa Western women’s basketball defeated the Rock Valley Golden Eagles 66-63 in a nailbiter of a competition. The Reivers needed a bucket to bring things closer towards the end of the game with just 48.1 seconds left. McKenna Minter missed the opportunity to tie things up at the charity stripe but missed, and the ball was moved to the hands of the Golden Eagles. Iowa Western was able to eventually knock down free throws just a few plays later to give themselves a 64-63 advantage with 13.5 seconds left. After a timeout by Rock Valley, they inbounded and shot off the glass to give the Reivers the ball back, and after two made free throws, they took the victory.
Iowa Western was led on the day by Shannon Niles who shot just 6-22 from the field but knocked down a team-high 19 points while snagging six rebounds on the day. Sitting right alongside was McKenna Minter who had 16 points and also came up just short of a double-double with nine rebounds on the day. Caleigh-Rose West shot 50% from the field with a total of 14 points and hauled in nine boards while going 6-6 from the charity stripe. With those nine rebounds, she broke the Iowa Western record for rebounds in a season, breaking the former record set by Negesti Taylor in 2008-09.
On the opposite end, Rock Valley was led in the game by the game-leader Maya Mitchell who knocked down 23 points in the game with five rebounds while going 10-17 from the field. Right alongside Mitchell was Jasmyn Hale who came off the bench scoring 11 points and hauling in seven rebounds. The last double-digit scorer in the game was Bre’Nazjah Davis who went 3-5 at the charity stripe for a total of 10 points. The last top scorer was Mia Moore who knocked down nine points and snagged six rebounds.
Iowa Western was outrebounded 52-42 and had a total of 19 turnovers, the same as the Golden Eagles. Iowa Western was able to make their run on free throws, shooting 18-19 from the charity stripe versus Rock Valley going 11-18 from the same mark.
The Reivers return to action against Morton for the fifth-place match between the two.
