Plainview – The 12
th ranked Flying Queens continued their winning ways in their first game out of the Christmas break as they take down College of the Ozarks, 79-70, to move to 9-1 in Sooner Athletic Conference play.
Wayland Baptist (12-1, 9-1 SAC) opened tonight's game by getting two easy buckets on the interior by junior forward,
Megan Nestor, followed by an open three-pointer from senior point guard,
Emily Sigala, to open up an early 7-3 lead over the Lady Bobcats. Ozarks would answer back to take an 8-7 lead, but they wouldn't hold the advantage long as Nestor converted two more buckets on the inside to put the Queens back ahead, 11-9.
Kaitlyn Jerden would jolt the Queens further ahead, 17-10, at the midway point of the opening frame after knocking down an open three off the feed from Sigala for her third assist of the quarter. The Lady Bobcats tied the score up at 19-19 with just under a minute remaining in the quarter, but Jerden answered back with a lay-up followed by a
Teodora Popovic three-pointer to give the Queens a 24-21 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Popovic carried the hot-hand into the second quarter as she knocked down her second three-pointer of the night to give WBU a 29-26 lead. The Queens extended their lead to 34-28 with just over three minutes until the halftime break after Jerden knocked down yet another jumper, but the Bobcats continued to fight back and eventually cut their deficit to three points after a quick 5-0 scoring run.
The Queens converted 3 of 4 free throw in the final minute of the second quarter to carry a 39-35 lead over the Lady Bobcats into the halftime break.
The Queens opened the second half in very similar fashion as the first half with Nestor scoring four of the team's first six points of the frame to extend their lead to 45-36. However, the Lady Bobcats would once again battle back to make their deficit just three points after scoring a layup and a three-pointer, making it 47-44.
Wayland Baptist would answer back with a 7-0 scoring run that was capped off by a
Bobbie Fouquet three-pointer after Popovic dropped a beautiful behind-the-back pass to set up the shot perfectly. Popovic concluded a strong third quarter by sinking a half-court shot as time expired to give the Queens a 61-53 advantage heading into the final quarter of play.
The Lady Bobcats opened the final frame with the first bucket, but Jerden and Nestor followed up with interior buckets of their own to push the Queens lead back up to double digits with just over six minutes remaining. One minute later, freshman
Brooklyn Hurtado asserted her dominance in the paint by converting a tough and-one through traffic to extend the WBU lead to 70-60.
With just over two minutes remaining in the game, Sigala knocked down a dagger three-pointer to put the Queens up 76-67. Sigala would then follow that up by sinking three clutch free throws down the stretch to seal the victory for the 12th ranked Flying Queens over College of the Ozarks, 79-70.
Head Coach
Jason Cooper recapped his team's performance saying, "Thought it was a good start to the second semester – knocked a little rust off. I liked our fast start on the offensive side of things, but we didn't play great defense, which kept the game a little closer than we wanted."
Coach Cooper continued, "I definitely thought our effort in our fight was there, which is the big thing when you come back off of a 17-day break like we did. Sometimes you just have to go out and win the game."
Nestor led the Flying Queens offensively with 21 points on 10-14 shooting from the floor, while also grabbing 16 rebounds. Jerden finished with 14 points, including 2-5 from three-point range, and five rebounds. Sigala added nine points, a career-high 11 assists, and two steals. Popovic added nine points, five assists, and three rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench.
Coach Cooper highlighted some performances tonight saying, "Emily did a great job of facilitating the offense. It's great to see Meg have a big game. She really got us going in the third quarter. I was also excited to see Bobbie step up and player like her old self again."
The 12
th ranked Flying Queens will take the floor again on Saturday, January 4
th, for another Sooner Athletic Conference game against the Golden Eagles of John Brown University. Tip-off is scheduled for 2:00 PM at The Hutcherson Center.
