NAIA honors Flying Queen Morgan Bennett as National Player of the Week

NAIA Release
Wayland Baptist Flying Queens fans are aware Morgan Bennett knows how to score and dish out assists. She also knows how to rebound.

The Flying Queen senior rebounded from one of the most disappointing games of her incredible career to be named Sooner Athletic Conference and now NAIA Women's Basketball Player of the Week.

A 5-foot-8 guard from Shallowater, Texas, Bennett was honored by the NAIA after leading the fifth-ranked Flying Queens to a pair of overtime victories against ranked opponents, including the NAIA's No. 1 team, in the prestigious NAIA Women's Basketball Invitational in Jackson, Tenn.

On the heels of being held scoreless in a disappointing loss to third-ranked, defending national runner-up Oklahoma City, Bennett responded by scoring 18 points and pulling down a career-high 14 rebounds in a 76-68 win over No. 16 Bethel, Tenn. Then, in a 63-57 victory over top-ranked, 2019 national semifinalist Freed-Hardeman, Tenn., Bennett led Wayland with 17 points and had six steals.

For the week, Bennett averaged 17.5 points and nine rebounds and hit 11-of-13 free throws (85 percent).

Bennett, a second-team NAIA All-American last season, is closing in on the Flying Queens record for all-time assists. She currently has 554, 69 behind the 613 recorded by Chris Kennedy from 1979-83. Bennett ranks No. 9 in the NAIA in assist/turnover ratio (3.6-to-1).

It is Bennett's first NAIA National Player of the Week award and the first for the Flying Queens since Jade Jones was honored in January 2017.

On Monday, Bennett was honored as the SAC's player of the week for the second time in three weeks and for the third time in her career. Her previous recognition this season came after she led the Flying Queens to wins over No. 6 Our Lady of the Lake and Mary Hardin-Baylor, ranked seventh in NCAA Division III. She scored a career-high 23 points against OLLU.
 
Bennett also has 913 career points and would become the second Flying Queen this season, joining Deborah VanDijk who did it in the second game, to join the program's 1,000-point club.

The Flying Queens (6-2) end a six-game road swing when they host No. 21 Thomas More University, Ky., at 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7. Wayland then hosts No. 23 LSU-Alexandria on Dec. 19, wrapping up a season-opening, 10-game stretch that will see the Flying Queens face eight ranked opponents.