Flying Queens, Pioneers rise in Top 25

After both teams played some very impressive basketball at home last week, the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens and Pioneers experienced jumps in the NAIA Top 25 Coaches' polls. The Flying Queens rose one spot to 24^th while the Pioneers climbed three places to 15^th.
 
After making their first appearance in the Top 25 a week ago, the Flying Queens (15-9, 10-4 Sooner Athletic Conference) fell to No. 2 Oklahoma City, 80-78, before blowing out Southwestern Christian, 85-67.
 
After almost falling to Wayland, OCU suffered its second loss of the season when Oklahoma Baptist snapped the Stars' 18-game winning streak in Shawnee, 66-62. That loss didn't affect OCU's ranking as the Stars remained No. 2 while OBU moved from No. 10 to No. 7.
 
Texas Wesleyan went from the equivalent of 27^th to 26^th.
 
On the men's side, the Pioneers won their fifth and sixth straight victories last week by throttling No. 23 OCU, 98-71, and topping Southwestern Christian, 84-72. As a result, Wayland moved from 18^th to 15^th, while OCU fell one place to 24^th.
 
The top team in the SAC continues to be Mid-America Christian, which was bumped up two spots from 16^th to 14^th, barely edging out the Pioneers. Wayland hosts MACU in the regular-season finale on Feb. 28.
 
Meanwhile, Southwestern Assemblies of God, which had been ranked No. 24, is now the equivalent of 26^th while OBU, which was the equivalent of 31^st, did not receive any votes.
 
The Flying Queens and Pioneers play their final regular-season road games this week, traveling to Siloam Springs, Ark., to face John Brown on Thursday evening then to Shawnee, Okla., to take on St. Gregory's University on Saturday afternoon.
 

RANK	LAST WEEK	SCHOOL (1ST PLACE VOTES)	2014-15 RECORD	TOTAL POINTS
1	2	Talladega (Ala.) (7)	23-3	248
2	3	Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) (2)	23-2	241
3	4	Pikeville (Ky.) (1)	24-2	234
T4	1	Cal State San Marcos	24-3	223
T4	5	Hope International (Calif.)	22-2	223
6	8	Dalton State (Ga.)	22-3	209
7	10	Concordia (Calif.)	22-5	203
8	9	Georgetown (Ky.)	22-4	189
9	12	Columbia (Mo.)	22-4	173
10	6	Campbellsville (Ky.)	22-5	171
11	7	Arizona Christian	21-6	165
12	15	Montana Western	19-6	157
13	12	Martin Methodist (Tenn.)	21-4	156
14	16	Mid-America Christian (Okla.)	18-8	149
15	18	Wayland Baptist (Texas)	21-4	144
16	14	LSU Alexandria	15-3	136
17	11	Benedictine (Kan.)	20-6	126
18	22	Evangel (Mo.)	16-9	120
19	21	Our Lady of the Lake (Texas)	18-4	102
20	17	Xavier (La.)	19-8	101
21	RV	Lewis-Clark State (Idaho)	20-6	93
22	19	Bethel (Tenn.)	20-6	78
23	25	Cumberlands (Ky.)	19-7	60
24	23	Oklahoma City	13-7	53
25	RV	Westmont (Calif.)	17-8	49

Others Receiving Votes: SAGU (Texas) 48; Philander Smith (Ark.) 36; Carroll (Mont.) 32; Central Methodist (Mo.) 29; Wiley (Texas) 25; William Carey (Miss.) 10; LSU Shreveport (La.) 5; Great Falls (Mont.) 3; Missouri Valley 3.
 

RANK	LAST WEEK	SCHOOL (1ST PLACE VOTES)	2014-15 Record	TOTAL POINTS
1	1	Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) (10)	25-1	250
2	2	Oklahoma City	18-2	241
3	4	Westminster (Utah)	19-2	230
4	3	Campbellsville (Ky.)	24-2	229
5	5	Bethel (Tenn.)	24-2	220
6	8	Concordia (Calif.)	19-4	203
7	10	Oklahoma Baptist	19-4	197
8	9	Vanguard (Calif.)	18-5	195
9	6	Loyola (La.)	21-2	187
10	7	Langston (Okla.)	22-2	186
11	11	Montana State-Northern	24-3	169
T12	14	Our Lady of the Lake (Texas)	20-5	154
T12	13	MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.)	20-5	154
14	12	Wiley (Texas)	19-2	148
15	16	Westmont (Calif.)	20-5	138
16	15	The Master's (Calif.)	18-7	137
17	17	Lyon (Ark.)	22-4	121
18	19	Lindsey Wilson (Ky.)	21-6	113
19	18	Carroll (Mont.)	16-8	108
20	21	Shawnee State (Ohio)	18-8	82
21	22	Martin Methodist (Tenn.)	22-4	79
22	20	Great Falls (Mont.)	20-6	78
23	RV	Pikeville (Ky.)	22-6	77
24	25	Wayland Baptist (Texas)	15-9	72
25	24	Lewis-Clark State (Idaho)	19-7	64

Others receiving votes: Benedictine (Kan.) 47; Texas Wesleyan 38; Southern-New Orleans (La.) 30; Baker (Kan.) 23; William Woods (Mo.) 17; Culver-Stockton (Mo.) 7; Cumberland (Tenn.) 7; Columbia (Mo.) 5.