Deborah VanDijk joined the 1,000-point club and
Jenna Cooper made a big splash in her home debut as a Flying Queen to lead Wayland Baptist to a 100-57 bounce-back win over Sul Ross State on Tuesday evening at Hutcherson Center.
VanDijk became the 49
th member of the Queens' century scoring club in the second game of her senior season, ending with 20 points (on 8-of-11 shooting from the field) and 10 rebounds. Cooper, a redshirt sophomore, also recorded a double-double with 10 points and a game-best 14 boards.
Three other Queens reached double-figure scoring as sophomore
Payton Brown matched her career-best with 17,
Morgan Bennett got 14 and
Kelea Pool 11.
"Tonight was good for us because we got to get some of our confidence back," said Flying Queens coach
Alesha Ellis, whose team dropped its season-opener last Friday in Missouri to No. 12 Central Methodist, 98-91.
Just as the Flying Queens learned some things about themselves in the loss to Central Methodist, they also discovered things in the win over Sul Ross, which designated the game an exhibition, although it counts as a "W" for Wayland.
"We took away a lot from that (Central Methodist) game. They exposed us in areas we need to work on. It was very beneficial," Ellis said.
One of the main areas, she said, was defense, an area Sul Ross showed Wayland still needs to improve.
"Offensively we'll find a way to put points on the board, but we have got to get better defensively," Ellis said. "We held (SRSU) to 57 points, but they did a good job against our defense. We want to get better 1-on-1, but our main concern is how to stop the ball as a team, and we're not doing a good job at that yet.
"When we get beat, we foul. Tonight they had half of their points at the free-throw line (26-of-37). We have to stop that, especially before this next game," the coach said in looking ahead to a Nov. 15 game in San Antonio against No. 6 Our Lady of the Lake University. OLLU upset Wayland in the second round of last season's NAIA National Championships, 96-93.
"Our Lady of the Lake likes to attack the basket, and when they do we can't bail them out."
One area Wayland dominated Tuesday was rebounds as the Flying Queens held a 62-36 advantage on the boards. Wayland ended with 26 offensive rebounds, and Cooper got half of her boards on the offensive end.
The Flying Queens also shined at the foul line, drilling 20-of-22 free throws (91 percent). Brown and Cooper led the way by going 6-for-6 each.
"We got back to some of the things we do best, like running the floor," Ellis said.
Wayland, which led 50-27 at halftime, committed only nine turnovers, compared to 20 for the visitors from Alpine.
Twelve of the 13 Flying Queens scored at least two points.
The Lady Lobos, who got 20 points from Chandre Nunez and 12 from Maria Maldonado, shot just 23 percent from the field (13-of-57).
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