It would take a lot of candy hearts and chocolate kisses to warm the hearts of the Culver-Stockton women’s basketball team after the beating it was issued Valentine’s Day at Collins Center.
The Baker women rebounded from a less than so-so performance at Evangel University in Springfield, Mo., to crush the other Wildcats Saturday, 74-54.
“We all wanted to beat them pretty bad,” sophomore Aubree Gustin said. “We at least wanted to get them as bad as we got beat by Avila (University).”
The team jumped out to an early lead and never looked back thanks to some strong guard play. Senior Kaitlin Schneden registered 20 points for the second time this season.
Schneden, who began the game with 978 career points, finished just a deuce away from the 1,000-point milestone.
Now it appears she will break the scoring mark on the road Thursday against William Jewell College.
“Honestly, I didn’t know I was that close,” she said. “That was until my mom told me before the game that I was just 20-something away.”
Fellow senior guard Lauren Shufelberger also lit up the score sheet for the ‘Cats, doing most of her damage from the free-throw line as she went a perfect 6-of-6 in the contest. The team shot 19-26 (73 percent).
The Wildcats had a strong shooting night from all over the court, as the team was 49 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from three-point range.
Culver-Stockton was anything but with its 11.1 percent performance from behind the arc.
Even had the team not shot well, it might not have been an issue. The Wildcats killed Culver-Stockton on the boards, 42-20.
“Everyone rebounded well that game,” sophomore Aubree Gustin said. “I think it was a big part of the win because we had a lot of run-outs after defensive rebounds that resulted in points.”
The team believes the victory will give it the momentum and confidence boost it needs as it heads into the crucial part of the season.
“A win like that helps a lot going into the postseason,” sophomore Josey McDiffett said. “Out of the last four games, we have a couple that we were supposed to win – Culver was one of them. We want to try to steal one, too. So this last win was nice to have going into Jewell.”
The Wildcats traveled Thursday to William Jewell but results were unavailable at presstime.
