PENSACOLA, Fla. – The West Florida women's basketball team defeated Arkansas-Monticello 64-49 Friday afternoon at the Comfort Inn-vitational Thanksgiving Tournament at the UWF Field House. The Argonauts advanced to the tournament championship game with the win.

"They took us out of our groove early, but we were able to get back into that groove and start scoring and playing great defense again and that was really the key to the game," said UWF coach Stephanie Lawrence Yelton. "We talked about coming in prepared after coming off another win Tuesday night. We wanted to make sure we had a good showing on our home court again, and we wanted to put ourselves in a good position to play for a championship this weekend."

The Argonauts remained undefeated, improving to 3-0 while the Blossoms dropped to 2-3.

UWF began the game on an 8-0 run and led 11-3 four minutes into the game, but UAM responded with an 11-2 run to lead 14-13 with 7:16 remaining in the first half. UWF would go on to lead 26-22 at the break and hold the lead the rest of the game.

Freshman Toni Brewer (Huntsville, Ala./Sparkman HS) led UWF with 25 points and 16 rebounds, and Kelly Preston (Waunakee, Wisc./Denver) scored double-digit points for the second consecutive game with 15 points and seven steals. Brianna Williams(Minneapolis, Minn./North Dakota) swiped seven steals as well, as UWF totaled 19 steals as a team.

UWF will play No. 20 Central Missouri Saturday at 4 p.m. in the final game of the Comfort Inn-vitational Thanksgiving Tournament at theUWF Field House.

"Tomorrow we get the opportunity to play a nationally-ranked opponent in Central Missouri," Yelton said. "They are a fantastic team. They are a very detailed team and very well coached. This will be a challenge for our young team, but we're excited for the opportunity to play a top-ranked team on our home floor."

For information on all UWF athletics, visit www.GoArgos.com.