Hawks refuse to lose grip on lead in closing minutes, knock off Bulldogs in GLVC play

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. — Once the Quincy University women’s basketball team managed to grab the lead, the Hawks weren’t giving it up.

Freshman forward Ashlynn Arnsman made back-to-back critical field goals in the final two minutes, junior guard Karsyn Stratton made four straight free throws and point guard Mikayla Huffine capped a career-best scoring effort with the final free throw in a 92-89 victory over Truman State at Pershing Arena.

Despite being mathematically eliminated from contention for the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament, the Hawks have the chance to win their most conference games since the 2015-16 season heading into next Saturday’s season finale against Illinois-Springfield.

Quincy is 10-17 overall and 9-12 in the league, The 2022-23 team won nine GLVC games. No other team in the past seven seasons won more than five.

This victory took a strong fourth-quarter effort.

Truman State’s three-point advantage at the end of the third quarter reached six points twice in the first two minutes of the final frame. Quincy tied the game at 72 on Cymirah Williams’ jumper with 7:02 remaining, and there were three lead changes and two ties in the 3 ½ minutes that followed.

The Hawks took the lead for good on Huffine’s 3-pointer with 3:40 to play that made it 80-78. Williams scored a minute later, and it was 82-80 when Arnsman, the Mendon Unity product, hit a free-throw line jumper with two minutes to play. Arnsman made a baseline jumper on the next possession and grabbed a defensive rebound with a minute to play as the Hawks led 86-82.

Quincy made 6 of 8 free throws in the final 31 seconds to ice the victory.

Huffine scored a career-high 20 points to go with nine assists and five rebounds, while Stratton finished with 19 points and Williams had 16 points and eight rebounds. Arnsman finished with nine points, four rebounds and a blocked shot.

The Hawks went 10 of 17 from 3-point range (58.8 percent) and 10 of 12 from the free-throw line (83.3 percent). The Bulldogs had four players in double figures, led by Ellie Weltha with 25 points.