The Lady Owls, fueled by free throws, logged their fifth straight win by outscoring the Lady Cougars 44-31 in the second half to rally for the 66-59 AMC victory Thursday night.
William Woods University - which also defeated Columbia 84-72 on Jan. 15 in Fulton - accounted for almost half of its point total Thursday night at the free-throw line, making 31-of-42 attempts (74 percent). The Lady Owls are now 21-7 overall and in third place in the American Midwest Conference at 17-6, a game in front of fourth-place Lindenwood-Belleville.
Down 28-22 going into the break Thursday night, William Woods opened the second half on a 10-2 run to go in front for the first time. After junior forward Nia Lateju tied the game on a basket in the lane, sophomore center Kennedy Volkart converted two free throws to give the Lady Owls a 32-30 edge with 16 minutes, 19 seconds left in the game.
William Woods led by as many as six points before the Lady Cougars pulled even at 48-all on Kayla Washington's short jumper with 4:52 left. The Lady Owls regained the lead for good on their next possession when senior guard Destani Stensrud made a pair of free throws.
Columbia crept within a point four times in the final 2:24, but William Woods locked up the win by connecting on 10-of-12 free throws during that span.
Senior guard Blake French and Volkart shared game scoring honors by topping the Lady Owls with 16 points apiece. French finished 10-of-12 from the line and Volkart was 6-of-6.
William Woods - which committed 17 turnovers - shot just 35 percent (17-of-49) from the field, including a dreadful 7 percent (1-of-15) from 3-point range.
Volkart also grabbed a team-high 15 rebounds as the Lady Owls were outrebounded 58-44.
Aqua Corpening paced the Lady Cougars (20-10, 16-8) with 14 points. Corri Hamilton, a Fulton graduate, added 13 points and collected a game-high 16 rebounds. Columbia - which had 18 turnovers - was also crippled by its own shooting woes, finishing at a meager 28 percent (22-of-79) overall and a miserable 11 percent (3-of-27) from behind the arc.
William Woods ends the regular season with an AMC matchup at Missouri Baptist University in St. Louis at 2 p.m. Saturday. The Lady Owls downed the Lady Spartans 68-50 on Jan. 17 in Fulton.