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PENSACOLA, Fla. -- The No. 24 Jennies gave 11th-year head coach
Dave Slifer his 200th win while at the helm of the UCM program, downing host West Florida in the Comfort Inn-vitational championship game on Saturday afternoon at the UWF Field House.
With the victory, the Jennies begin the season at 5-1 for the third straight year.
The Jennies spotted themselves a 4-1 lead just three minutes into the game with layups from senior
Justina Prairie Chief and junior
Danielle Barry. West Florida battled back to tie the game at 13-13 and would take their only lead shortly thereafter at 15-13 with just over 10 minutes left in the half.
UCM outscored the Argonauts, 9-2 over the next 2 1/2 minutes, capped off by a four-point play by junior guard
Tayler Weiks who splashed a triple from the right corner while absorbing a hard foul from Alyssa Dupree-Moore.
The Jennies' five point lead slowly grew to 10 at 27-17, highlighted by a three-pointer from senior
Amanda Rodenberg, who provided Central Missouri with five points off the bench in the game. The five points were a career-high for Rodenberg.
West Florida ended the half on a 12-5 run to close the gap to three points at 32-29 going into intermission. The Jennies received 21 points from the second unit in the first half. Barry led UCM reserves with seven of those 21 points.
Coming out of halftime, West Florida narrowed the Jennies' lead to two following a free throw by Toni Brewer, but the Jennies responded with five unanswered points over the next 1:36, pushing their lead to 37-30.
A 7-2 spurt by the Argonauts closed the gap to two points, but the Jennies pulled away once again, manufacturing an 11-4 run, highlighted by five points from junior
Shelby Winkelmann.
UCM was able to hold off West Florida for the remainder of the game, building a 57-47 lead with just over 5 1/2 minutes left. West Florida made a run at a late comeback, cutting the deficit to six points, but the Jennies closed out the game using a free throw from Prairie Chief and a layup from Thompson to extend their winning streak in the state of Florida to seven games, dating back to 2008-09.
For the second consecutive game, the Jennies finished with four double-digit scorers, headlined by Winkelmann with 16. Thompson added 15, while Barry set a new career-high with 12. Prairie Chief dropped 10 points, the sixth-straight game she has reached double-figures in scoring.
The Jennies finished the game with 37 bench points, the most since November 26 of last season against Evangel, when the reserves scored 36.
Central Missouri opens up MIAA play next Thursday, Dec. 4 at Fort Hays State for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off.
