Box Score OKLAHOMA CITY – The Wayland Baptist Flying Queens held their own with top-ranked Oklahoma City University, but in the end the defending NAIA national champions came away with an 86-74 Sooner Athletic Conference win in Abe Lemons Arena on Saturday afternoon.
The Flying Queens (4-4, 1-1 SAC), ranked the equivalent of 28
th, spent the game playing catch-up against the Stars (5-1, 2-0). Wayland fell behind my double digits in both the first and second halves, but both times the Flying Queens rallied.
The last rally brought WBU to within one point, 62-61, with just under eight minutes left in the game, but soon after the Stars went on a 10-1 run to stretch the lead back out to 12 points, 78-66. With just 3:11 left, the Flying Queens didn't have another run left in them.
Stephanie Afunugo led Wayland in scoring and rebounding with 21 points and 10 boards, followed by
Shawna Monreal with 15 points,
Laura Castillo with 12 and
LaTericka Anderson with 10. Anderson added nine rebounds and a team-high five assists.
OCU was paced by Rateska Brown's 28 points, 18 of which came on her 6-of-11 3-point shooting. Brown drilled three 3s early in the game to help the Stars surge to a 21-10 lead, although the Flying Queens answered by scoring 10 unanswered points to close to within one midway through the first half.
A 3-pointer by Castillo at the 6:15 mark put Wayland up 30-28, the Flying Queens' first lead since the opening minute. The lead didn't last long, however, as OCU tied it on its next possession then regained the upper hand on the one after that.
Wayland never saw the lead again.
The Stars led it at the break, 44-38, and put in 10 straight points to lead it 54-40 before Wayland made its final push to slowly close to within one, 62-61.
Behind Brown's 28 points for OCU, Catherine Kruschke added 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting. Ouleymatou Coulibaly added 16 points and Janay Borum 12.
The Flying Queens outshot (52 percent to 48 percent) and outrebounded (37-34) the Stars, but were hurt by 28 turnovers, a dozen more than OCU. WBU hit 17-of-25 free throws (68 percent) compared to OCU's 57 percent (12-of-21), but the Stars held the edge from 3-point range, 57 percent (8-of-14) to Wayland's 42 percent (5-of-12).
The Flying Queens take a nine-day break from action before playing at Texas-Permian Basin in Odessa on Dec. 15. They then go to Denton to play Texas Woman's University on Dec. 20 and to Abilene to take on McMurry on Jan. 3 before returning to SAC play Jan. 8 in what will be just their second home game of the season.
