Box Score
BILLINGS, Mont. – Westmont's Lauren McCoy hit a tough layup with contact by two defenders with 1.9 seconds left, then Wayland Baptist's
Maci Merket's desperation shot from near the top of the key missed at the buzzer as the No. 15 Flying Queens fell to the fourth-ranked Warriors in the semifinals of the NAIA Division I Women's Basketball Championships here Monday night, 56-54.
"I guess every coach thinks their times deserves to win it all," Wayland coach
Alesha Ellis said. "If the small things would have fallen our way tonight they would have won it."
Westmont (26-6), of Santa Barbara, Calif., advances to Tuesday's championship to play No. 2 Freed-Hardeman, Tenn. (33-4), which defeated No. 14 Montana-Western (27-9), 61-50, to advance to its second national title game. The Warriors will be looking for their second national championship in six years.
Westmont's run at nationals has special significance to a team coming from a part of the country that has had a difficult year.
"We've been through a lot of adversity this year with the fires, and the mudslides, and now the campus is being evacuated due to more rain in the forecast, and we are here playing for a national championship," Warriors head coach Kirsten Moore said. "We want to be an inspiration. We are Montecito strong. Even though we are here doing what all these young ladies have worked so hard for, we are doing it with the thoughts of people at home."
Wayland's season ends at 27-7, the Flying Queens' most wins since 1999.
Appearing in their fourth national semifinal, the Flying Queens led the entire first quarter. They were up by four on several occasions, before Westmont cut it to 16-15 entering the second.
Wayland struggled with turnovers early in the next period and the Warriors took advantage, scoring the first seven points as part of an 11-2 run that gave Westmont a 26-18 lead.
But a 3-pointer by
Kelea Pool helped Wayland get going again, and the Flying Queens ended the half on an 8-2 run to pull to within two, 28-26.
Deborah VanDijk scored the first points of the second half to knot it at 28-all, but the Warriors hit the next six. By the end of the third, the Flying Queens were back to within one, 39-38.
A 3-pointer by
Kendrick Clark tied it at 44 with 6:34 to go. Westmont scored the next four, but a 3 by
Morgan Bennett cut it to one with 3:21 left.
The Flying Queens had a couple of chances to take the lead but missed shots. McCoy then hit a pair of free throws and
Nina Sato answered with a bucket for Wayland. After Morgan Haskin connected for the Warriors, Sato missed on the Flying Queens' end.
WBU got it back after a Westmont turnover, and after a timeout a wide-open Bennett drilled a smooth 3-pointer from the deep on the left wing to knot it at 54 with 24.6 seconds showing.
The Warriors called three timeouts before putting the ball in the hands of their all-time leading scorer. With more than 1,500 career points, McCoy – a 6-foot-1 senior forward who ended with 22 points and 11 rebounds – took an inbounds pass from outside the 3-point line to the right of the basket.
She took it to the free-throw line, made a cross-over dribble against Sato's defense, then drove down the right side of the lane where she ran into Sato and VanDijk with their arms raised under the basket. McCoy still was able to bank in a layup off the glass.
Ellis said they didn't want to foul on the play.
"We knew (the play) would probably go to the post. She likes to go left, so we took that away from her. She threw up a shot and it went in.
"She just made a great play."
After a timeout the Flying Queens got the ball near the time line on WBU's end of the floor. Merket, a junior and WBU's top 3-point shooter, got off a hurried shot at the buzzer, but it missed.
"We got the look, it just didn't work out," Ellis said.
VanDijk led Wayland with 12 points, while Clark and Bennett got 10 each. Merket added seven and a team-high 10 rebounds, while Sato chipped in eight and Pool 7.
Besides McCoy's 22, Haskin – a 6-foot-3 senior center – got 18 for Westmont's double-digit scorers.
The 54 points are the second-lowest of the season for the Flying Queens against a Westmont team ranked No. 2 in the NAIA allowing opponents just over 50 a game. WBU went into the game averaging 77 on offense.
Wayland was outscored at the free-throw line by seven as the Flying Queens got to the stripe only six times, hitting four. Westmont was 11-of-14.
"The refs let us play quite a bit," Ellis said. "We attacked the rim a little bit, but I'll tell you, that was the best defense we've faced. They knew Maci is a shooter and they did a nice job on her. They focused a lot on her, which made her night pretty difficult."
WBU shot better from the field, 41 percent (22-of-54) to the Warriors' 38 percent (21-of-55). The Queens hit 6-of-18 3s (33 percent) compared to 3-of-15 (20 percent) for Westmont.
"We missed a few shots in the paint that we might have been able to hit, and they knocked down some key shots," Ellis said.
Wayland ended with 15 turnovers, two more than Westmont, which outrebounded the Flying Queens, 33-32.
"Westmont was good. It wasn't so much about what our girls didn't do, Westmont played well, and we hung with them at their best," Ellis said.
Playing in its fourth semifinal and first in more than a quarter-century, Wayland was hoping to advance to its third championship game and win what would have been its first national crown. The Flying Queens' last national title was the last of its 10 AAU championships in 1975.
Wayland advanced this far with wins over No. 18 Lyon, Ark., 78-62; No. 1 Shawnee State, Ohio, 79-69; and No. 7 Vanguard, Calif., 68-44.
It was the second game ever between Wayland and Westmont. Their only previous meeting came Dec. 17, 2013, when the Flying Queens visited California. Defending national champion Westmont won, 77-54.
Ellis said she's extremely proud of her team, all season but especially at the national tournament.
"We had some players step up for this tournament. I feel they grew as players and people throughout this tournament," Ellis said.
"We have nine returning next year. We're going to miss those seniors (Sato,
Jada Riley and
Gabby Gonzales) and we're going to have to fil in some spots, but now they know they can do it.
"I am really proud of the girls' effort and for working as hard as they do. They proved to themselves they could compete with the best.
"We came up just two points shy."
