Box Score Flying Queens vs USAO Gallery
It didn't start out that way, but the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens made Saturday afternoon's 68-47 Sooner Athletic Conference win over the University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma look easy.
In their final regular-season game prior to next week's conference tournament, Wayland fell behind 16-6 before outscoring USAO, 20-5, over the final 8½ minutes of the first half. That gave the Flying Queens the upper hand at intermission, 29-23, and they never looked back after that.
"We were a little slow and sluggish to start the game, then I thought we slowly responded over the course of the first half," WBU coach
Tory Bryant said. "I'm happy our kids were able to finish off the regular season at home with a win and gain a little bit of momentum going into the conference tournament," which begins for the Queens on Thursday morning in Shawnee, Okla.
Angeleigh Davis scored 16 points and
Christie Mooney 11 to lead Wayland (15-15, 7-9 SAC).
Laura Castillo added nine, all on three-pointers. The Lady Drovers (10-18, 1-15) got 16 points from Krista Ford and 10 from Rocio Medrano.
"It was a good team effort," Bryant said. "A lot of kids played a lot of minutes."
Wayland, which defeated USAO, 74-59, on Jan. 17 in Chickasha, Okla., turned the ball over just seven times, compared to 15 for the Lady Drovers. The Queens shot 37 percent (22-of-60) from the field, including 46 percent (13-of-28) in the second half when they outscored USAO, 39-24. The Queens hit an impressive 16-of-20 free throws (80 percent).
USAO shot just 27 percent (15-of-56) from the field, but hit all 11 of its free throws. The Lady Drovers didn't get more chances at the stripe because Wayland was called for only nine fouls.
The Lady Drovers scored the first eight points of the game, and the Queens trailed 18-9 when
Stephanie Afunugo and
CeCe Williams hit back-to-back 3-pointers to put WBU right back in it. Another 3-pointer by Castillo tied it at 20 with just under three minutes left in the first half, then a traditional 3-point play by Davis gave the Queens their first lead of the game. A 3-pointer by Mooney – Wayland's fifth bomb of the half – with 52 seconds left accounted for the Queens' six-point intermission lead.
"Our 3-point shooting kept us in it in the first half," Bryant said of the Queens' 5-of-13 effort from beyond the arc.
The Queens scored the first seven points of the second half to assume a 13-point advantage. Wayland went up by 21, 60-39, on a 3-pointer by Castillo with 7:30 remaining. The Queens' largest lead was 23 points.
"The second half we did a good job of getting to the free-throw line and of limiting their 3-point makes," Bryant said. "We also shot at a higher percentage. Making almost half of our shots enabled us to pull away late."
Next for Wayland is the SAC Tournament, which will be hosted by OBU beginning Wednesday night with a play-in game between the No. 8 seed (Mid-America Christian or St. Gregory's) and the No. 9 seed (USAO). Quarterfinals are Thursday, semifinals are Friday and the championship is Saturday.
Pairings will be announced on Sunday.
After tying for fourth place in the conference with Oklahoma Baptist (14-13, 7-9) and John Brown University (12-16, 7-9), Wayland will be the No. 6 seed because the Queens have fewer wins (1) against JBU (3), which swept Wayland, and OBU (2), which split with both Wayland and John Brown. JBU will be seeded fourth and OBU fifth.
As a result, the Queens will face third-seeded Rogers State (22-8, 12-4) in the quarterfinals, likely sometime Thursday morning. Wayland has split with Rogers, first falling at home, 73-54, before defeating the then No. 12 Hillcats on Feb. 16 in Claremore, Okla., 65-59.
"They handled us really well at home, then we went to their place and were fortunate to pull out a close one," Bryant said. "We're going to have to play a complete basketball game to give ourselves a chance to win against a very good team, but I like our chances."
The coach said he's looking forward to seeing what his team can do as "a new season" begins.
"We have to take it one game at a time," he said. "The most important game of our season is Thursday."
