Avila Falls at Home to Local Foes Saint Mary

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Avila women's basketball could not overcome a slow start or consistently crack the code of the Saint Mary defense, and the Eagles (7-13, 6-8 KCAC) fell at home to the KCAC's top team, the Spires (16-4, 13-1 KCAC), by a final score of 73-47 in Mabee Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon.

The Eagles had one starter unavailable and another one limited for this matchup against their local foes from Leavenworth, but the Spires were also absent one key starter and didn't seem to miss a beat. Saint Mary made a Cinderella run through the KCAC Tournament a season ago and have followed that up with an excellent regular season campaign so far – the Spires' second win over the Eagles this season improves their league record to 13-1 as the second half of the conference record officially begins.

In a rare two-game homestand, the Eagles experienced the true highs and lows that KCAC basketball can often provide. Avila led by as many as 24 points and brushed aside Ottawa with relative ease as recently as Wednesday, but then trailed by as many as 26 points and were left playing catchup for almost the entire game against Saint Mary not even three days later.

Tanea Sims set the tone for a brilliant outing by scoring the game's first points before Avila got buckets from Aubrianna Leiker and Kathleen Stanley to take a 4-2 lead in the game's opening minutes. But Rebecca Gilpin set up Demi Aamold for a three-pointer just seconds later to put the Spires back in front 5-4, and they never trailed again. After scoring 18 straight points against Ottawa in the first quarter Wednesday, Avila managed 18 points total in the first half against USM Saturday, and the Eagles could not climb out of that early hole.

Sims was excellent for the Spires with 14 points and 12 rebounds, and three other Spires finished in double figures. Hannah Smith battled through adversity to lead the Eagles with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting; Eireon Adams led the team with six rebounds, including three on the offensive glass.

Up next, Avila women's basketball will make the trek west to Winfield, Kansas to face Southwestern in a KCAC contest next Wednesday. The Eagle women kick off the doubleheader at 5 PM with the men to follow at 7; as always, you can watch all the action live and for free on the KCAC Network.