JACKSON, Tenn. --- Jessilyn Conicelli had 24 points and 15 rebounds while Christina Barclay added 20 points and eight boards, but it was not enough as No. 9 Biola was upset by No. 21 William Woods University (Mo.) in the first round of the 2011 NAIA Division I Women's Basketball National Championship at the Oman Arena on Wednesday night.
The Eagles wrap up their best season in nearly 30 years with a 25-7 overall record while the Owls improve to 30-4 and advance to the second round of the tournament to face Westminster College (Utah).
Conicelli closes out a stellar career with her 26th double-double of the season and 16th-straight by scoring 24 points and recording 15 rebounds including seven on the offensive glass. She had 13 of the team's 33 points in the pivotal second half.
The Eagles had a tough time stopping the William Woods star Rachel Baker, who scored a game-high 26 points and added 13 rebounds.
The game got off to a back-and-forth start with Biola using a 10-1 run as Emily Drews hit back-to-back three's and Barclay hit a jumper to put the Eagles up 20-13 just over eight minutes into the contest. Biola still led by six with 7:45 to go when William Woods responded with back-to-back three-pointers to tie the score just one minute later.
The Eagles kept the lead until late in the period when Jill Sutton drained a long three to put the Owls up one. But Barclay pulled down an offensive rebound and hit a fall away jumper at the buzzer to give Biola a 36-35 halftime lead.
In the second half, the game went back and forth through much of the period. Biola held a slight one-point advantage at 54-53 as Jennifer French drained a three with 7:31 to go. But things went downhill quickly. A jumper by Sutton but the Owls back on top two minutes later which was followed by a turnover on the Biola end. During the scramble for the ball, Conicelli went down with what appeared to be a severe cramp in her leg and hobbled off the court.
Biola couldn't seem to get things going without their star and William Woods took advantage. Even after Conicelli returned two minutes later, the Eagles seemed out of sorts and the Owls scored seven-straight points to take their largest lead to that point at 62-54 with 4:23 to go.
The Eagles continued to struggle from the field and William Woods would stretch the lead up to 12 with just over two minutes left as Biola went cold from the field. The Eagles would hit just 1-of-11 shots over the five minutes stretch from 7:31 until a Conicelli jumper with 1:54 to play.
Biola cut the lead down to four down the stretch as Drews hit a three-pointer with 28 seconds left to make it 73-69 game. But the Owls made a pair of free throws to stretch it back up to six and Drews barely missed a three-point attempt on the other end. William Woods would corral the rebound to seal the deal.
While Barclay and Conicelli had solid games, they provided 44 of Biola's 69 points in the game. The rest of the team hit just 10-of-43 (23 percent).
The Eagles also took just five shots from the free throw line--all by Conicelli--and made four while the Owls went to the line 35 times and made 26 shots, though 20 of those shots came in the final five minutes of the game.
Biola shot 35.7 percent in the game including 21.7 percent from three-point range. William Woods hit 42.9 percent and the Owls were 9-of-18 from beyond the arc.
