COLUMBIA, S.C. —The St. Andrews Knights women’s basketball team was defeated in their AAC opener on the road Wednesday night by Columbia College in a 99-74 final. St. Andrews falls to 1-4 (0-1 in conference games) on the season with the loss while the Koalas remain undefeated and improve to 6-0 (1-0 against conference opponents) with the victory. The 99 points allowed and 74 points scored were both the most in a game for the Knights all season.

The difference in the game ended up being the first and fourth quarters as Columbia outscored the Knights by a combined score of 58-35 across those two periods (28-19 in the first quarter and 30-16 in the fourth quarter). The second (20-20) and third quarters (21-19 in favor of Columbia) were pretty even from a points perspective.

St. Andrews shot the ball very well from the field at 49.1% (28-57) but also committed 33 turnovers, leading to 34 Columbia points. The Koalas on the other hand shot a bit worse than St. Andrews at 41.9% (36-86) but only had 15 turnovers leading to 11 Knights points. The Koalas also had a big edge in both second chance points (23-6) and bench points (41-16).

Londaisha Smith led the team in both points and rebounds with 18 and 11, respectively. Katie Moore and Ashley Starks both had 13 points and three steals with Moore also nabbing five rebounds in the defeat. Jada Richardson and AJ Price had three assists apiece to co-lead the Knights.

St. Andrews will have a couple of days off before wrapping up their three-game road trip in Waleska, Georgia on Saturday afternoon with a matchup against conference rival Reinhardt. Tipoff is scheduled for noon.

Men’s basketball loses in Columbia

The Knights dropped their first conference game of the season on the road at the hands of Columbia College on Wednesday night. St. Andrews remains winless on the young season and falls to 0-3 (0-1 in conference action) with the 106-87 defeat while the Koalas improve to 5-1 (1-0 against conference opponents) with the victory. The 87 points scored are the most St. Andrews has obtained in three games thus far while the 106 points allowed are also the most the Knights have given up in a contest this season.

St. Andrews was outscored by 16 points in the first half (48-32) but managed to keep it mostly even the rest of the way with the Koalas scoring 58 points in the final 20 minutes of action compared to 55 for the Knights. St. Andrews never led in the game and there were no lead changes or ties. Columbia led by as many as 32 points.

All of the shooting percentages were relatively comparable with the Knights shooting 41.1% from the field, 32% from three and 70.4% from the free throw line compared to 44.6%, 28.1% and 67.6% for Columbia. Where the gap existed was in rebounds (59-39 in favor of the Koalas), second chance points (30-2 in favor of Columbia), points in the paint (52-28 Koalas) and bench points (50-33 Columbia). Columbia also had over twice as many assists as the Knights (21-10).

Mateu Escamilla had 24 points to pace St. Andrews in scoring and also nabbed a team high 11 rebounds in the loss. Jaylin McDuffie was the team’s next highest scorer with 17 points. Ma’Nas Drummond had three assists to lead the team while also adding nine points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Like the women’s team, the men will get a few days off before heading to Reinhardt University on Saturday afternoon for another conference matchup. Tipoff is set for 2:00 p.m. from Waleska, Georgia.