| gobuffsgo.com |
|
No. 3 Washburn Gives WTAMU The Blues In Eliminating Lady Buffs From Regional, 75-62
March 11, 2005
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. --- The seventh-seeded West Texas A&M University Lady Buff basketball team got down early and never recovered, as the Lady Buffs were defeated by second-seeded and No. 3 Washburn University, 75-62, Friday afternoon in the NCAA-II South Central Regional quarterfinals, at host Drury University's Weiser Gymnasium at Springfield, Mo.
Washburn jumped out to a 12-2 lead and never looked back as the Lady Blues won their 14th-consecutive game, improving to 30-2 on the year and advancing to the semifinals Saturday evening, where they'll face third-seeded Angelo State University, who knocked off LSC-counterpart Northeastern State University, 63-53, in the first quarterfinal contest of the afternoon.
WTAMU ends its season with a 21-9 record, as the Lady Buffs lost for the second game in a row, after winning their previous six games, as WTAMU was eliminated from last week's LSC Tournament with a nine-point OT loss at Northeastern State in the semifinals. WTAMU reached the 20-win plateau for the 18th season under head coach Bob Schneider, including the last three years.
The Lady Buffs were led by senior forward Celeste Stevenson, who posted a game-high 20 points, going 14-of-17 from the free throw line, as WTAMU's Career Leading Scorer finishes her career with 1,988 points. Stevenson also leaves atop the school record books list for free throws made and attempted and second on the rebounding list.
Fellow senior forward Vasha Adams posted her eighth double-double of the season and 14th of her career with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Junior forward Keisha Monroe added nine points, followed by junior guard Tiffany Lewis eight points and senior guard Stephanie Williams tallying seven points to go with a team-high four assists.
Sophomore forward Alicia Saunders posted a career-high by grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds, leading WTAMU to a 40-31 rebounding advantage, marking just the second time this season that Washburn has been outrebounded by its opponent. The Lady Blues came into the game ranked sixth in the nation in rebounding advantage (+9.6).
WU also entered Friday's game ranked fourth in the country in scoring defense, as WTAMU scored the most points against WU in nine games.
"I'm very pleased with our defensive effort and especially our rebounding," Schneider said. "We outrebounded Washburn by nine rebounds, and that's something not a lot of people have done this season, but you've got to score points and we just didn't do that enough to win."
The Lady Blues had four players in double-digits, led by 17 points from Carla Sintra along with nine rebounds, while Jennifer Harris tallied 14 points, including 12 in the first half, to go with a game-high nine assists. Lora Westling notched 11 points, while reserve Megan Sullivan added 10 points, including eight in less than a four-minute span, filling in for Sintra who was in foul trouble, to lead WU on a 16-5 run in the second half to break the game open after WTAMU had closed to within four points.
The Lady Buffs shot a paltry 31.7 percent (19-of-60) from the field, including 3-of-16 (18.8 percent) from 3-point land. WTAMU was a season-best 87.5 percent (21-of-24) from the free throw line, going 19-of-19 before Stevenson missed a pair with 4:58 left in the game.
Washburn was 26-of-51 (51.0 percent) field goal shooting, hitting 6-of-19 (31.6 percent) of its 3-point shots. The Lady Blues were 17-of-22 (77.3 percent) from the charity stripe.
Monroe scored the first points of the game just 13 seconds in, but then Washburn went on a 10-0 streak to take a 12-2 lead at 16:37, with Harris netting eight points in the run, including a pair of steals and layups.
It was Washburn's 24th run of the season of at 10 or more points, as the Lady Blues mirrored their MIAA Championship game victory over Emporia State when the jumped out to a 15-2 lead and never looked back, routing seventh-ranked ESU, 63-41.
WTAMU closed to 20-13 after a rebound and putback from Saunders at 8:29. After an acrobatic layup from Williams as she was falling down after being fouled, she then hit the ensuing free throw to pull the Lady Buffs within 26-20 with 4:24 left.
After the Lady Blues stretched their lead to 30-20, WTAMU rallied to 30-25, as Monroe registered an old-school three-point play after getting fouled on a baseline layup, and Lewis hit a pair of free throws after getting fouled driving to the hoop as the shot clock was winding down.
Sintra hit two free throws with 31.4 seconds left to give WU a 32-25 lead and neither team could score the rest of the half.
The Lady Buffs sliced the gap to four points at 36-32 at the 18:00 mark on a 3-pointer by Lewis, WTAMU's first trey of the night, but the Lady Blues countered with a layup from Sintra 10 seconds later to spark another 10-0 run for WU to open a 46-32 advantage and WTAMU never got the margin to single digits from there on out.
"We fought back hard and got within four, but Washburn kept getting an offensive rebound or a basket when it mattered most, or we'd miss a shot or turn the ball over. At this stage of the season, you can't make those kind of errors," Schneider said.
Washburn took its largest lead of the night at 60-39 with 8:30 to go after WU's Brooke Ubelaker hit one-of-two technical free throws, after the Lady Buff bench was issued a technical.
Down by a palindromic 64-46, WTAMU put together a 9-1 run, capped by a Williams 3-pointer at the 3:00 mark, but Sintra halted the rally with a basket, then Roadhouse hit 6-of-6 from the free throw line down the stretch.
Adams had three steals Friday to give her 106 this season, which is the fourth-best single-season mark for swipes in school history, bettering her last year's mark of 105 snags. Her 211 swipes leaves her fifth on the WTAMU Career Steals list and her 3.5 career steals average is the best in Lady Buff basketball history.
WTAMU loses four seniors from this year's squad: Adams, Petty, Stevenson and Williams, but return two starters in Lewis and Monroe, as well as junior guard Jennifer Brock, who missed this season due to a knee injury.
The senior class led the Lady Buffs to the LSC South title last season and the division runner-up finish this year, as well as consecutive trips to the LSC Tournament semifinals and back-to-back South Central Regional appearances. "This has been a fabulous group of seniors to coach, both on and off the court," Schneider said. "Celeste and Suni have been with us for all four years and Stephanie and Vasha have been with us two years. They've fulfilled all of the expectations we had for them and more. It's been exciting to watch Celeste and Suni grow from shy, naïve freshmen into outspoken leaders as seniors. We're going to miss all four of them." |
