WAXAHACHIE – The Wayland Baptist Flying Queens saw a share of the Sooner Athletic Conference regular-season championship slip through their fingers here Saturday afternoon as Southwestern Assemblies of God University rallied for a 67-62 victory.
Sixth-ranked Wayland (25-5, 19-3 SAC) led by as many as 14 points in the first half and were still up by a dozen in the third quarter when the Lady Lions (20-10, 14-8) set off on a 23-3 run that included 17 unanswered points. The Flying Queens were outscored 22-8 in the fourth quarter and, after 14 wins, suffered their first-ever loss to SAGU.
"I thought we were prepared mentally, but obviously we weren't," Wayland coach
Alesha Ellis said. "I felt like our energy was bad today."
Wayland would have finished as co-champs in the SAC alongside No. 10 Oklahoma City (27-3, 20-2), a team the Flying Queens beat both times they played. But with the loss, and with OCU's 76-58 win over Mid-America Christian, Wayland is the conference runner-up and No. 2 seed in the conference tournament.
Wayland will face seventh-seeded Texas Wesleyan (14-16, 12-10), a team the Flying Queens defeated Thursday in Fort Worth, 73-64, in the first round of the SAC tourney at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Hutcherson Center. The winner advances to OCU, which is hosting the semifinals and finals next weekend.
Ellis said the Flying Queens have several things to work on in a short period, namely their confidence.
"They're not real confident in what they're doing," she said. "We just have to keep working on our confidence."
Against SAGU, a team Wayland beat 76-66 in Plainview on Jan. 3, the Flying Queens experienced a tough shooting day, hitting 31 percent (23-of-74) from the field and 25 percent (6-of-24) from 3-point range. Top scorers
Maci Merket with 21 points,
Payton Brown with 15 and 10 rebounds, and
Deborah VanDijk with nine points and 12 boards, all shot close to 50 percent from the field.
SAGU was led by Lexi Rich, the SAC's leading scorer and the No. 8 scorer in the NAIA who came in just below her average with 18 points, a total matched by teammate Sydney Meador.
"We did a decent job on their leading scorer, but we weren't ready in other positions to guard," Ellis said.
It was Rich, a 5-foot-8 junior guard from San Antonio, who sparked the Lady Lions on their big comeback, recording 11 straight points. Rich, who finished 6-of-17 from the field and 2-of-8 from beyond the arc, nailed a 3-pointer to end the third quarter and get her team within nine, 54-45, then made Wayland pay for three straight turnovers to open the fourth.
The Flying Queens didn't score in the final period until the 4:12 mark, going close to six minutes stuck on 54 points.
Back-to-back turnovers for Wayland then a series of misses and another giveaway allowed SAGU to get up by eight with 1½ minutes left. A 3-pointer by
Morgan Bennett cut it to five, and Wayland got it back after a SAGU miss, but another turnover by the Queens and two late free throws sealed it for the Lady Lions.
"SAGU is good, and we knew they're good. They took OCU to overtime," Ellis said.
WBU suffered 15 turnovers compared to only eight for SAGU. Wayland outrebounded SAGU by a wide margin, 58-39.
Wayland fell behind early, 17-10.
"We got hit in the teeth and weren't ready to play out of the gate, and really never recovered," Ellis said. "I I know we got up (by 14), but we didn't handle that real well, either.
"We just have to continue to get better and turn around and do what we can on Tuesday."
