Box Score SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. – With her team's once-comfortable lead slipping away in Thursday night's game against John Brown University, Alesha Robertson called a timeout to regroup her troops.
"I could tell our girls were pretty tired, so I called timeout to give them a rest and assure them it wasn't over yet," Robertson said. "I told them, 'We have to dig deep these last five minutes.'"
The 24
th-ranked Queens did that and more, outscoring John Brown 18-2 to end the game and secure an 81-55 Sooner Athletic Conference victory.
"It was a big win," Robertson said. "John Brown is so hard to beat at their place. They execute so well and run lots of screens. They made us play really good defense, and I felt like we did a good job of that."
Wayland (16-9, 11-4 SAC), which defeated John Brown 64-44 earlier this season in Plainview, never trailed after scoring the first four points of the game. John Brown (10-16, 5-10) tallied the next three, but then the Flying Queens put up nine answered – including a 3-pointer by
Laura Castillo – to begin building their lead.
Wayland grew the margin to as many as 17 points in the first half before going into the break with a 16-point edge, 39-23.
Both teams came out cold in the second half with Wayland getting its first points 3½ minutes into the action.
The Golden Eagles managed to trim a 19-point, 44-25 lead to just eight, 46-38, by outscoring Wayland 13-2 over a four-minute stretch, but that's as close as they ever came.
It was 63-53 with 4:39 to go when Wayland began putting the game away for good with its dominating stretch push.
"It was a 10-point game and I felt like we were letting things slip away," Robertson said. "During that timeout I told them we need to get a stop and run the clock and get a good shot instead of putting up a quick shot."
The Flying Queens first notched a dozen unanswered points, with
Shawna Monreal scoring the first half of those. John Brown dropped in a pair of free throws before Wayland scored the final six points of the contest, including a 3-pointer by
Regan Hestand.
"They made a run at us late, but the girls did a god job of staying calm," Robertson said. "They made big plays on the defensive end and then capitalized on them on the offensive end."
The 26-point final margin was Wayland's largest lead.
Castillo scored 18 points,
LaTericka Anderson 17, and Monreal 16 to lead Wayland.
Iesha Greer added eight points and a team-best 13 rebounds.
Robertson said the Flying Queens added a couple of wrinkles prior to the game, and ran them well.
"We put in a few extra plays for this team and executed those really well," she said.
The Golden Eagles were led by Lauren Rogers' 17 points as the only JBU player in double figures.
Wayland shot 48 percent (31-of-64) from the field, with Castillo going 8-of-12 and Anderson 7-of-11. The Queens missed only 3-of-18 free throws, hitting 83 percent, with Monreal putting in 7-of-9.
The Flying Queens play their final regular-season road game at 1 p.m. Saturday in Shawnee, Okla., against St. Gregory's (3-21, 2-13), which fell to No. 2 Oklahoma City on Thursday, 115-50.
"If we do what we know how to, we should be fine," said Robertson, whose team defeated St. Greg's, 89-42, earlier this season in Plainview. "This is definitely not a game we can afford to lose. We have to take care of business. We need to make sure we're over this win tonight and go to work (Friday)."
Wayland ends the regular season with home games against No. 7 Oklahoma Baptist on Feb. 26 and Mid-America Christian on Feb. 28. OBU tripped MACU on Thursday, 98-53.
