COLUMBUS, Miss. – Claire Leak had the best scoring game of her brief Mississippi University for Women career and Conley Langford finished with another double-double effort, but it was not enough to avoid a 61-48 loss to Principia College, the second-place team in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) standings, at Pohl Gym. The setback dropped the Owls to 5-10 (4-7 SLIAC), while the Panthers improved to 12-6 (9-2 SLIAC).  

MUW played right with Principia the bulk of the game. The teams were tied at 10-10 after one quarter and went into the halftime locker room knotted at 26-26. It was an ice cold third period where the Owls found themselves outscored by a 21-9 margin, that made the difference in the game. PC held a slim 14-13 advantage in the fourth quarter, as well.  

The Panthers did a good job of bottling up MUW’s leading scorer in Langford, limiting her to 10 points (well below her season average of 19.2 points per game coming in). But while Principia may have slowed the Owl’s returning all-American guard a bit in points, Langford did manage a team-leading 11 rebounds for her fifth double-double game of 2023-24.  

Langford’s 10 points also extended her double-figure scoring streak to 22 games, just three shy of the MUW record of 25 (set by Rokila Wallace in 2018-19, 2021-22).  

Leak, a newcomer to MUW this season, had an Owls’ career high 19 points. Leak was an efficient 6-for-8 overall from the field, including a 4-of-5 shooting night from long range. 

Zoe Essary chipped in eight points and three boards. Aaliyah Moody came off of the MUW bench and, for the second-consecutive game, gave Head Coach Drew Johnson a quality effort with seven rebounds, five points, and a blocked shot. 

The Owls will cap a string of five-consecutive home games at 1 p.m. on Saturday by hosting Fontbonne University.