Queens take down No.13 OLLU, 100-80

Box Score Monday night's game in Hutcherson Center against No. 13 Our Lady of the Lake went the way most probably thought it would at first. Then the 23^rd-ranked Wayland Baptist Flying Queens got hot, and kept getting hotter, until they posted a decisive 100-80 victory over the Saints.
 
Junior starting guard Maci Merket scored 21 points and Kendrick Clark, a sophomore, came off the bench to contribute a career-high 19 in the Flying Queens' impressive victory. Senior Gabby Gonzales also came off the bench and added 18 points, four better than her previous career-best offensive output, with five assists.
 
Merket, with six, and Gonzales, with five, combined for 11 3-pointers as the Flying Queens (2-0) drilled 15-of-38 (40 percent) from long range.
 
Also adding to the offensive output were sophomore starters Deborah VanDijk, who had a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds, and point-guard Morgan Bennett, who finished with nine assists and 10 boards to go with her six points.
 
Senior starters Nina Sato and Jada Riley ended with six points each. Sato pulled down 10 rebounds – giving the Queens three with double-digit boards – while Riley tallied four rebounds and three assists.
 
The Queens barely led, 22-18, after the first quarter but gained a 24-point lead in the second quarter, going into halftime with a 54-30 advantage.
 
The Saints scored their 30^th point four minutes into the second quarter on a jumper by Nakia Page then didn't score again the remaining six minutes before the half.
 
The Queens dominated the boards, 61-35, including 21 on the offensive end compared to just nine for the Saints. OLLU shot 40 percent from the field while the Queens hit 48 percent.
 
The Queens' next games will be in Siloam Springs, Ark., at 2 p.m. Friday against another ranked team, No. 19 MidAmerica Nazarene University, and 1 p.m. Saturday against Evangel (Mo.).