In Hutch finale, Cooper-Jackson leads Queens to victory with 30

Jenna Cooper-Jackson put on a whale of a show in her final outing at Hutcherson Center.

The Wayland Baptist Flying Queens' lone senior scored 30 points – including a handful of 3-point bombs – as she led her team to a 67-57 victory over John Brown University (Ark.) in Thursday's quarterfinals of the Oklahoma Ford Dealers Sooner Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament.

"It's that time of year when you want to be playing solid and smart basketball, and our girls are doing that," Wayland coach Jason Cooper said.

John Brown hit a 3-pointer to start the scoring. It took the Flying Queens (20-9) two minutes to take the lead, and after that they never trailed again as they racked up their eighth-straight win against the Golden Eagles (also 20-9).

The Queens move on to the tourney semifinals against top-seeded, 17^th-ranked Texas Wesleyan (25-4), which topped No. 8 seed Oklahoma City, 93-74. That game will tip off at 1 p.m. Monday on the Mid-America Christian campus in Oklahoma City.

Wayland, ranked the equivalent of 35^th in the NAIA, ended the regular-season by handily beating Texas Wesleyan, 90-62, after falling to the Lady Rams earlier in the season in Fort Worth, 87-74.

The WBU-TXWES winner advances to Tuesday's 6 p.m. championship against what will be a lower-seeded team after upsets in the other two quarterfinals Thursday. Seventh-seeded Langston (17-12) went on the road and knocked off No. 2 seed, 22^nd-ranked MACU, 59-58, while sixth-seeded Southwestern Christian (24-5) upset No. 3 seed, 25^th-ranked Science & Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha, 67-62.

In the Hutch Thursday, it was a game of burst as the Flying Queens and Golden Eagles took turns making runs. Wayland went up 12 in the first quarter only to see JBU go on a 7-0 to end the period and cut it to five.

The Queens stretched the lead to 17 just before halftime on a 3-pointer by Ashlyn Shelley, but JBU came out hot in the second half with back-to-back 3s as part of a 12-0 run that again got the Golden Eagles to within five, 44-39. WBU went scoreless for the first five minutes of the second half before Taryn Shultz nailed a 3.

The Queens held a 56-45 lead going into the fourth, but another long quarter-opening scoring drought for Wayland, this one 4½ minutes, saw JBU get within seven. The Golden Eagles got within six, 58-52, with 3 minutes to play, but a bucket by Cooper-Jackson then a clutch 3 by Shelley stretched the margin to double digits.

From there, Cooper-Jackson went 4-of-4 from the foul line to seal the deal.

Cooper-Jackson scored 11 of her 30 points and half of her six 3s in the first quarter as she came within four of her season scoring best.

"What a way for Jenna to go out in the Hutch. She started playing basketball in this gym 20 years ago, and to leave the floor at home for the last time with a 30-point performance and six big 3s…it can't really get more poetic than that," her father and head coach said.

Shelley ended with three 3s and 11 points, five rebounds and four assists while Kaitlyn Edgemon got eight points. Marchelle Bowden chipped in six and Taylor Houston five with a team-high seven rebounds.

"Ashlyn had a huge game for us. We are hard to beat when she is knocking down 3s like that," Coach Cooper said. "Kaitlyn didn't score as much as usual but she was tasked with covering the top post player in the conference and also locking down the deep corners. She played so well. It was easy to see why she was an All-SAC defensive team selection."

The coach complimented his team's latest solid defensive effort.

"Our execution on the defensive end has been next level these past few weeks. JBU was ranked seventh nationally with 10 3-point makes per game. Tonight they only made six (on 28 attempts, 21 percent). We knew that defending the 3-point line is what we needed to do to win and the Queens stepped up and locked them down."  

The Golden Eagles got 26 points from Tarrah Stephens, who hit 11-of-13 2-point field goals. No other JBU player reached double figures.

"I'm so proud of our team chemistry and attitude. From the top players to our bench personnel, everyone is filling their role so well," Cooper said.

"I have to give a shout-out to (assistant) Coach (Chelsey) Hunter and (graduate assistant) Coach (Conley) Niblett, too. These past few weeks they have really stepped it up and gone above and beyond in so many ways. The coaching side of things is, of course, huge, but what they do behind the scenes is amazing.  I am blessed to have them on my staff."