Box Score
(Photos by Texas Powers.)
KAILUA, Hawaii – A poor shooting performance resulted in Wayland Baptist's first loss of the season as the fifth-ranked Flying Queens fell to No. 3 Campbellsville, Ky., Thursday morning at the Maliki Sports Hoop 'N Surf Classic, 65-52.
"Nothing was falling," Wayland coach
Alesha Ellis said. "We executed well and were getting shots we wanted, but we weren't hitting anything."
Wayland (8-1) shot just 31 percent from the field, including a 3-of-21 effort (14 percent) from 3-point range.
"We did a nice job attacking their 1-3-1 and getting shots we wanted, (but) the ball just wouldn't drop," Ellis said. "I went down the bench and couldn't find one player who could hit."
The game did produce a bit of good news as senior
Nina Sato set a new school record for blocked shots with 10. That shattered the old record of six held by two players, Sally Lindeman and Carmen Wynn, who both got six in the same game against Schreiner back in the 1984-85 season.
Campbellsville (12-2), which was coming off an 82-74 loss to unranked Menlo, Calif., on Tuesday, led 21-11 after the first quarter. The Flying Queens got to within seven at halftime but couldn't get any closer the rest of the game.
The 52 points was the second-lowest offensive output in Ellis' five years at Wayland, behind only a 61-41 loss t Texas Woman's University two years ago. It was 14 points shy of the Flying Queens' previous lowest scoring game this season, a 66-47 win over Southwestern Assemblies of God University.
"At times we had wide-open shooters but we didn't see them and didn't get (the ball) to them," Ellis said. "We just didn't score."
Wayland scored on its first two possessions to take a 5-0 lead, but it was downhill from there. Ahead 7-4, the Flying Queens were outscored 17-4 the rest of the first period and trailed 21-11 after the first 10 minutes.
Campbellsville, a national semifinalist last season when the Tigers lost to eventual champion Oklahoma City in the semis, went up by as many as 16, 33-17, just before Wayland scored eight unanswered points toward intermission – including a lay-up at the buzzer by
Kendrick Clark – to gain some momentum and get within seven, 34-27.
Wayland couldn't get any closer than that, however. Five times the Flying Queens cut their deficit to seven in the third period, but each time the Tigers answered.
Campbellsville again stretched its lead to as many as 16, and after the closest Wayland came was nine points midway through the fourth quarter.
Clark and
Maci Merket paced the Flying Queens with 10 points apiece.
Morgan Bennett added nine,
Nina Sato eight,
Deborah VanDijk seven,
Jada Riley six and
Kambrey Blakey two.
Campbellsville, which shot 45 percent from the floor including 4-of-10 from long range, got 19 points from Madison Clements, the only Tiger in double figures. The Tigers ended with 12 steals, seven less than their NAIA-leading average of almost 19 a game.
Wayland was outrebounded 43-32 (Sato and VanDijk had six each) and had five fewer turnovers, 25-20.
"In games like that (when shots aren't falling) you have to do the small things, and there were a few things we could have done better," Ellis said. "We have to be strong with the ball and we missed a few key block-outs that hurt us."
The Flying Queens opened play in the Hoop 'N Surf on Tuesday when they rallied from a 13-point deficit and ended the game on a 26-9 run to defeat St. Xavier, Ill., 84-77. St. Xavier is the No. 1 ranked NAIA Division II team and last season's national runner-up.
Ellis said she feels good about the trip.
"Even with that loss I feel like we had a good trip. Only losing by what we did and shooting the way we did is pretty good. We've had teams that (had they shot like we did today) would have lost by 40."
The Flying Queens, who in winning their first eight games were off to their best start to a season in 18 years, are idle until Jan. 4 when they return to Sooner Athletic Conference play in Siloam Springs, Ark., against No. 18 John Brown University. WBU's next home game is Jan. 11 against USAO.
(The Flying Queens' trip to Hawaii is being funded largely from a donation from the Flying Queens Foundation.)
