SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. – Wayland Baptist roared to a 19-point first-half lead then fought off a second-half charge by John Brown as the Flying Queens claimed a pivotal 71-66 victory in Sooner Athletic Conference play here Saturday afternoon.
The win – a season-best fifth in a row for Wayland – avenged a 68-61 loss to the Golden Eagles in Plainview on Jan. 5 and moved the Flying Queens (17-9, 13-7) into fourth place in the SAC standings, a half-game ahead of JBU (18-7, 12-7). The top four teams in the final regular-season standings host first-round contests in the conference tournament.
"I'm excited about how hard we are playing right now. There is a different feeling when you have a group that is playing hard like this," WBU coach
Jason Cooper said.
Wayland opened its big early lead thanks to a scorching first half by
Kaitlyn Edgemon, who scored 22 of her 24 points in the first 20 minutes, hitting 9-of-10 field goals. The Flying
Queens led 29-15 after the first quarter when they hit five of their eight 3-pointers, including two by
Cassie Onwugbufor.
"We came out ready today. We were firing on all cylinders early," Cooper said. "Cassie's big 3s in the first half kept JBU guessing. It is huge when her and Emily (Sigala) hit shots for us.
"Kaitlyn's 22 in the first half were amazing. She was hitting everything and from everywhere," the coach added.
John Brown came roaring back after intermission, outscoring Wayland 23-10 in the third quarter to close to within 58-52.
Jenna Cooper-Jackson hit a 3 to open scoring in the fourth before Edgemon scored her lone second-half points to take it back to a double-digit lead.
But the Golden Eagles answered with five points of their own. That's about the time the game was stalled for several minutes while officials tried to fix the shot clock. They couldn't and ultimately decided to disable both shot clocks and have the PA announcer count down the final few seconds.
Neither team did much offensively after that with no scoring for a four-minute stretch to the 1:25 mark when JBU again pulled to within six. WBU's
Ellie Bruffey hit a pair of free throws with 38 seconds to go, but Maddie Altman nailed a 3 to get the Golden Eagles to within five with 29 seconds to play. Cooper-Jackson then sealed it with four foul shots (WBU was 9-of-10 at the line) to make it a 9-point game before JBU got two closing buckets.
"In the second half we dug our heals in and took everything they gave us," Cooper said.
Besides Edgemon's 24, Cooper-Jackson finished with 16 and nine assists while freshman
Taylor Houston logged her second double-double of the season with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
"We lean on Kait and Jenna so much and once again they both played so well. It was Jenna's 14th or 15th game where she barely missed a double-double," Coach Cooper said. "Taylor bounced back from Thursday's game and had a huge double-double."
JBU's Natalie Smith led four Golden Eagles in double figures with 17, while Tarrah Stephens logged a 16-10 double-double.
Wayland closes out the regular-season by hosting two of the top teams in the conference, starting with No. 18 Science & Arts of Oklahoma (21-4, 15-4) at 6 p.m. Thursday then No. 17 Texas Wesleyan (23-3, 18-2) at 2 p.m. Saturday. In the first half of league play, WBU fell to the Rams, 87-74, and to the Drovers, 72-65.
