BELTON – Fifth-ranked Wayland Baptist rallied from a 21-point second-half deficit, taking the lead on a 3-point play by
Kaylee Edgemon with 18 seconds to play then surviving a last-second shot to record a 75-72 victory over Mary Hardin-Baylor here Saturday afternoon.
"It was exciting," Wayland coach
Alesha Ellis said after the game against the Crusaders, ranked seventh in NCAA Division III. "I'm just so proud of our kids. When you're down by 21 in the third (quarter) you could very easily give up, and they didn't do that."
In their final game before the start of Sooner Athletic Conference play, the Flying Queens (3-1) – coming off an 87-79 victory over sixth-ranked Our Lady of the Lake on Friday in San Antonio – found themselves trailing 43-30 at intermission. The Crusaders, playing their season-opener, hit back-to-back 3-pointers to close the half.
"They kicked us in the teeth in the beginning by knocking down quite a few shots," Ellis said.
Wayland's deficit grew to 21 points, 54-33, midway through the third. That's when the Flying Queens began making their comeback, managing to pull to within 13, 64-51, heading into the fourth.
Wayland started the final quarter on a 12-2 run, kicked off by a 3-point play by Edgemon. Edgemon then nailed a 3-pointer to get the Queens to within one, 71-70, with 31 seconds to go.
UMHB's Madison McCoy made 1-of-2 free throws with 20 seconds to go to put her team up by two, but Edgemon was fouled while connecting on a jumper in the paint. The junior from Littlefield then gave Wayland its first lead since midway through the second quarter when she hit the ensuing free throw with 18 seconds to play.
The Crusaders turned to Alicia Blackwell for their final shot, but the senior guard missed and
Kelea Pool got the rebound for Wayland. Pool was fouled and added a pair of insurance free throws to cap the incredible comeback.
"We made that we needed to in order to win at the very end," Ellis said.
Morgan Bennett paced Wayland with 16 points, followed by Edgemon and Pool with 15 each and
Deborah VanDijk with 10. All 15 of Edgemon's points came after halftime.
Jenna Cooper's 10 rebounds led Wayland.
Ellis said Pool, who also had five rebounds and three blocks, had a "massive game off the bench. I'm super proud of her. She was mentally focused and helped us get the job done tonight.
"Our bench was super active."
UMHB got 49 combined points from Hannah Holt (28) and Kendall Rollins (21), who hit five of her team's nine 3-pointers.
The Flying Queens hit 10-of-12 free throws, compared to 3-of-7 for the Crusaders.
"It's neat as a coach to watch your kids come together and pull something like that off, especially against a good team," Ellis said. "Mary Hardin-Baylor is a good team and shot the ball really well tonight.
"It takes a lot of heart to come back," the coach added. "It's nice to be able to work on last-second stuff. We got to learn a lot of lessons from that."
Wayland opens conference action against two unbeaten, first at 6 p.m. Thursday in Bethany, Okla., against Southwestern Christian (6-0) prior to a showdown at 2 p.m. Saturday against third-ranked Oklahoma City University (4-0).
