Battle’s career night leads Jennies past
Ouachita Baptist, 74-58

                The Central Missouri Jennies got a career night from senior Kim Battle in their victory over the Lady Tigers of Ouachita Baptist, 74-58 on Saturday night in the Arkansas Tech Holiday Inn/PDQ Classic in Russellville, Ark. She scored a career-high 28 points and pulled down 11 rebounds, also a career-high, it was her first career double-double as a member of the Jennies.
            The Jens (4-1) jumped out to a 10-4 lead within the first four minutes, sparked by five points from senior Ashley Millham. OBU (2-2) responded with a 12-5 run over the next six minutes behind eight points from Bethaney Turner to take its final lead of the night at 16-15. Central Missouri re-took the lead on Tanisha Bitsoi’s lay-up with 9:27 remaining to jolt a 10-0 rally highlighted by four points from Battle. UCM would not trail the rest of the night as it built its largest lead of the half at 25-16. The Lady Tigers would not go quietly and closed the gap to 27-25 with just over five minutes remaining. Central Missouri would score 11 of the final 18 first half points to head into the locker room with a 38-32 lead.
            Battle led all scorers with 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the floor. The Jennies knocked down 53.8 percent of their shots (14-of-26) while Ouachita Baptist shot just as well connecting on 11-for-21 (52.4 percent).
            The Jens opened the second stanza with a 7-2 run to stretch their lead to 45-34. OBU would get as close as six on a couple of occasions, but couldn’t get any closer as UCM put the game away with a 12-0 run that spanned nearly four minutes with Battle scoring six of the 12 points.
            Battle led three Jennies in double figures, Lindsey Maple finished the game with 15 points and Millham dropped in 11 more to pace the Jens. Turner was the only OBU player in double figures with 19.
            After Ouachita Baptist shot so well from the floor in the first half, the Jens turned up the defensive intensity and held the Lady Tigers to only 26.7 percent (8-of-30) after the intermission. Central Missouri, on the other hand, connected on 14-for-30 (46.7 percent). UCM finished the game out-rebounding OBU by a 37-26 margin.