Queens take seat in championship vs. #1 OCU

SAC Tournament Page
  The fifth-ranked Wayland Baptist Flying Queens have their sights set on a Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament title, but they'll have to go through top-ranked Oklahoma City University to get it.
 
After locking in their NAIA-best 26^th-straight win in Friday afternoon's semifinals at Hutcherson Center, 80-58 over Science and Arts of Oklahoma, the Flying Queens (30-2) will take on Oklahoma City (30-1) for the second time in 10 days when they meet at 1 p.m. Saturday in the tourney finals. OCU got past Mid-America Christian in its semifinal, 74-59.
 
Both the Queens and the Stars, who already have earned spots in the NAIA National Championships, shared the conference regular-season title, with Wayland winning on Feb 27 in Plainview, 65-50, to hand OCU its first loss after 27 season-opening wins. The Stars dealt Wayland its last defeat in Oklahoma City on Nov. 23, 70-46.
 
On Friday, Wayland, being the SAC Tournament host, provided the second-seeded Queens with the home-court advantage and plenty of fans cheering them on as they reigned in their 22-point triumph over the Drovers (21-10).
 
An uncharacteristically low-scoring first quarter for the Queens led them to a one-point deficit as the quarter ended 9-8. Wayland went just 3-of-22 (14 percent) from the field in the first quarter, only slightly worse than USAO's 4-of-17 (24 percent).
 
Both teams emerged from their shooting slumps as the second quarter commenced. The Queens opened the quarter on a jump shot from Kaylee Edgemon to grab the lead by one, but the Drovers quickly responded when Reyna Ammons hit a bucket to take the lead back for the last time as the score read 11-10.
 
That's when the Queens went on a 13-0 run, gaining momentum leading up to a possession where Morgan Bennett grabbed an offensive rebound, resulting in Jenna Cooper sinking a baseline jumper just as the shot clock ticked down to zero. The Drovers took a timeout, hoping to slow the Queens, but Bennett took the court only to increase her teams' lead by 3, 23-11, as she hit one from the top of the key.
 
The Queens finished the first half with a 13-point lead, 35-22.
 
The Queens outscored the Drovers 24-17 in the third quarter and 21-19 in the fourth to lead them to their 22-point victory. Wayland wound up shooting 30-of-82 (37 percent) from the field, including 12-of-41 (29 percent) from the three.
 
Cooper, who led Wayland with 19 points and 14 rebounds, recorded her ninth double-double of the season and was just one board short of matching her career-high 15 rebounds. She has grabbed 14 rebounds on two other occasions this season.
 
In addition to Cooper's solid contribution, Kambrey Blakey put up 18 points and brought down six boards, while Payton Brown also had a big performance with 17 points and four assists, only days after her career high 23-point game. Bennett added 10 points and four assists. Kelea Pool hauled down a team-best 10 rebounds.
 
The Drovers, paced by Ammons with 13 points, went 24-of-65 (37 percent) on the game, counting 4-of-14 (29 percent) from beyond the arc.
 
The Queens out-rebounded USAO, 55-40. The Drovers completed the game with 15 turnovers, while the Queens kept theirs to 11.