The women's basketball team entered Friday's game versus former KIAC rival Indiana University – Kokomo fresh off an impressive 24 point, home court victory over Alice Lloyd College; and firmly on the USCAA National Championship bubble.
With the release of the Friday's USCAA Division I Top-20 Coaches Poll, the Mountaineers found themselves again sitting in ninth. Only eight Division I teams will receive a bid on February 23rd for the USCAA National Championships to be held March 4-9 in Uniontown, PA. Thus every moment of every game was crucial.
The Blue Crew showed few signs of concern as they completely overwhelmed the Cougars in nearly every segment of the game. Johnesha Warren led all scorers with 17 points on seven for seven shooting. Only the Cougars' 3-point shooting kept BC from leading by more than 20 points, on the wrong end of a 41-21 halftime score.
As good as BC looked in the first half, they looked equally as bad to start the second half. Sloppy play and turnovers allowed the Cougars to cut the lead to 50-39; before a Trent Milby full timeout momentarily stopped the bleeding. IUK would continue to trim the lead further cutting it to six points with 4:35 remaining. Senior Katelyn Butler stepped up huge at that moment draining back to back 3-pointers to give the Mountaineers breathing room to finish off the contest 71-57.
The Mountaineers were again led by Warren who would score 26 points and Alexus Calhoun who added another double-double scoring 20 and hauling down 15 rebounds for the third time this season.
The Mountaineers will have little to time recover as they travel to Wilberforce, Ohio for a home-and-home series finale versus the Bulldogs. They return to the Seabury Center's friendly confines on Friday, February 13 for a 7:00 pm match-up with Kentucky Christian University. That game will be the Mountaineers' Senior Night as the program honors its two seniors, Katelyn Butler and Johnesha Warren.