WBU to face Lewis-Clark St. (Idaho) in Opening Round championship

source: wbuathletics.com

photo: Claudia Lusk

Boxscore

With scoring consistency and a tenacious defense, the Flying Queens turned in one of their most solid performances of the season as eighth-ranked Wayland Baptist dispatched Our Lady of the Lake University in a semifinal of the 2022 NAIA Women’s Basketball Opening Round presented by Ballogy on Friday night, 89-68.

Wayland, which scored 13 unanswered points early in the fourth to gain control, got 22 points and seven assists from Jenna Cooper, 21 points and nine rebounds from Kaitlyn Edgemon, and, on her birthday, 16 points and 10 boards from Kaylee EdgemonAshlyn Shelley contributed nine points and Angel Hayden eight rebounds for the Queens, who tallied between 20 and 24 points every quarter.

The win sends the Flying Queens (32-3) into the Opening Round championship against 19th-ranked Lewis-Clark State (Idaho), which took out MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) in the second semifinal Friday at Hutcherson Center, 62-45.

The winner of Saturday’s final, set to tip off at 5 p.m. in the Hutch, advances to the NAIA National Championship Final Site in Sioux City, Iowa.

“It’s been a few years since the Queens have won a tournament game,” Wayland coach Jason Cooper.

It’s been three years, in fact, since the 2018-19 season when Wayland defeated William Jessup (Calif.) in the first round before falling to the team the Queens beat Friday, OLLU, 96-93.

The rematch between the Sooner Athletic Conference champion Flying Queens (32-3), the No. 3 seed in their quadrant of the 64-team tournament, and Red River Athletic Conference champion Saints wasn’t nearly as exciting as Wayland was in control most of the way after a bit of a slow start. OLLU (20-11), which entered the game on a 16-game winning streak, jumped out to an 8-2 lead, but one Wayland took the lead on 3-pointer by Taryn Schultz with 3:17 left in the first, the Queens never trailed again.

“I thought we came out a little tight in the first half,” Cooper said.

WBU was up 24-19 going into the second quarter when the Queens stretched their lead to a dozen before four straight points to end the half by OLLU made it 44-36 at the break.

“We came out in the second half more composed and settled in,” Cooper said.

It was a 16-point spread when Jenna Cooper nailed one of her high-arcing bombs midway through the third, although a mini-run by the Saints brought it back down to 10, 66-56, early in the fourth quarter.

That’s when the Queens put it out of reach thanks to a 13-0 run that saw Wayland hold OLLU without a point for some 5½ minutes. That allowed the Queens to open up a commanding 23-point lead, 79-56, with just over four minutes to play. Not long after that, Coach Cooper emptied his bench.

Wayland shot 55 percent (34-of-62) from the field, its third-best outing of the season, and finished 10-of-18 from 3-point range. That 56 percent accuracy was by far a season-best, 11 percentage points ahead of their next best performance.

Meanwhile, OLLU made just 3-of-29 (10 percent) from long range.

“Offensively, I was very pleased with our overall execution and shot selection,” Coach Cooper said. “Jenna had a great all-around game, and it was good to see her hit a few 3s.”

Jenna was 4-of-5 from beyond the arc while Kaitlyn Edgemon was 3-of-6.

“Kaitlyn had a big second half (nine points in the third) and was a big part in us pulling away,” Coach Cooper said. “We had solid minutes from our bench, which was huge.  Taryn really played well for us.”
 
OLLU, which Wayland defeated 78-56 on Nov. 13 in the Hutch, was led by Miranda Villegas’ 23 points and Natalia Trevino’s 18. Emiko Hemphill pulled down 10 rebounds for the Saints.

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