Women's Basketball can't Stop Flying Queen Offense, Bows out of Tournament
WAXAHACHIE, Texas -- The Sooner Athletics top-scoring team posted 47 points and shot 64.3 percent in the second half, which allowed top-seeded and No. 12 Wayland Baptist (Texas) to take an 85-65 win over the John Brown womens basketball team (18-14) in the Sooner Athletic Conference tournament semifinals on Friday (March 4) afternoon inside the Shaffer Center.
The Flying Queens (24-4) led by as many as nine midway through the first quarter, 12-3, by a Kimmy Deines layup and a Brooke Barker triple led a 6-0 rally that cut the lead to three.
Barker, in her final game as a Golden Eagle, wouldnt let JBU go away quietly, and scored 10 of her first-half 17 points in the second quarter, which led to four ties in the frame. Sophomore Jana Schammels triple at the 2:53 mark tied the game at 30 apiece, and layups from Barker and Deines kept John Brown in contention at the intermission, down only three points, 38-35.
The second half is where the tide shifted, however. The Golden Eagles shot 46.2 percent in the first half and held WBU to a 42.4 percent clip. In the final 20 minutes, Baptist would rattle off an 18-of-28 mark from the floor and hit 4-of-7 chances from behind the arc.
Through the first 6:35 of the third, Wayland jumped to a 13-point lead, 51-38, capping off a 13-4 run. Finally, at the 3:13 mark, junior Kodee Powell hit a pair of free throws to trim the lead to 11, and freshman Baily Cameron converted an and-one while Barker hit a jumper which trimmed the lead back to single digits, 54-45. Still, Wayland held an 11-point lead heading into the fourth.
Baptists Laura Castillo drained a pair of timely triples in the fourth, which halted a pair of potential JBU runs. Her second long-range bomb came directly after Barker had netted a layup and a triple behind the arc, which cut the lead to 17 with 5:52 left. Seemingly, the Flying Queens couldnt miss and out-scored the Golden Eagles 29-20 in the fourth quarter.
With WBU hitting over 60 percent of its shots in the final half, the Golden Eagles managed just a 32.3 percent mark from the floor.
Barker finished 9-of-13 from the floor and scored a game-high 24 points, hitting a trio of treys. Deines added 12 points, six boards and three assists while Schammel poured in three triples to finish with 10.
Baptist held advantages in a pair of key stats, including a 41-31 edge on the glass and a 37-9 lead in points off the bench.
Castillo led Wayland with 17 points on five triples while Shayla Monreal added 11 points, hitting 5-of-6 from the floor. More importantly, each Baptist reserve scored at least three points, and Krystal Forthan posted 13 off the bench.
With the win, Baptist has now won 20 consecutive games, dating back to Dec. 3 in Siloam Springs where the Golden Eagles handed WBU a 63-58 setback.
