STERLING – A difficult night shooting the basketball and two dozen turnovers were more than the Kansas Wesleyan women could overcome on the road against the NAIA's No. 9-ranked team.
The Coyotes shot 32 percent (18 of 56) and committed 24 turnovers in a 74-58 Kansas Conference loss to Sterling Thursday night inside the Gleason Center.
The loss ended their five-game winning streak and dropped them to 15-7 overall, 12-6 in the KCAC. Sterling won its 14th consecutive game and improved to 22-1, 16-1 overall.
Wesleyan's turnovers led to 30 Sterling points while the Warriors had eight turnovers that resulted in seven Coyote points. The Coyotes won the second half 35-33 but the damage was done the first 20 minutes.
"We made just too many mistakes against a good team that prevented us from winning," coach Ryan Showman said on his postgame radio show. "We talk about positives and I like how we won the second half, I like that we outrebounded them (39-33), we outshot them from the free throw line (16-13). There were a lot of good things to take from it.
"But at the end of the day we turned it over 24 times for 30 points and that's going to get you on the road against good teams. And it certainly got us tonight."
Sterling led from start to finish, scoring the game's first eight points and 12 of the first 14.
LaMyah Ricks (SO/Shawnee Mission, Kan.)' 3-pointer with 8:19 left in the half cut the deficit to 22-19 but Sterling pulled away again with a 19-4 surge, including the last 11 points of the second quarter, and led 41-23 at the break.
The Warriors had their biggest lead of the game, 70-44, after scoring the first six points of the fourth quarter before KWU closed the gap with a 14-3 run to end the game. Sterling scored four points the final 7:57.
Kelcey Hinz (SR/Whitewater, Kan.) led the Coyotes with 13 points and 14 rebounds. Ricks also scored 13 points and Amanda Hill (SR/Rossville, Kan.) added 12 points and eight rebounds.
Sterling shot 45 percent for the game (32 of 71), including 1 of 14 from beyond the 3-point arc (KWU was 8 of 24 from long range). Taya Wilson led the Warriors with 19 points and 15 rebounds. Bailey Albright and Korynn Clason scored 12 apiece.
Things don't get any easier for the Coyotes, who play Tabor at 5 p.m. Saturday inside Mabee Arena. The Bluejays are second in the KCAC standings with a 13-4 record (16-6 overall) after a 95-68 victory over Saint Mary on Thursday in Hillsboro.
Tabor defeated KWU 58-48 December 4 in Hillsboro in the first meeting of this season.
"It's a short turnaround, which might be a good thing," Showman said. "I've got a group that doesn't quit, they're a bunch of fighters, they're resilient. We're going to be okay; we're going to get past this one but in the moment it stinks."