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No. 23 Lady Buffs Eliminated From Regionals With 79-71 OT Loss To NSU In Semifinals
March 13, 2004
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The West Texas A&M University Lady Buffs' season came to an end Saturday night, as WTAMU lost a thrilling overtime contest, 79-71, to Northeastern State University, eliminating the Lady Buffs in the semifinals of the NCAA-II South Central Regional hosted by Drury University at Springfield, Mo.
WTAMU ends the season with a 25-6 ledger, after reaching the Regional semifinals for the first time since the 1998-99 season.
NSU, the seven-seed, improves to 25-7 overall, and will take on host Drury University, the top seed in the tournament and the second-ranked team in the country. Drury knocked off Washburn, 67-55, in Saturday's other semifinal. Drury improved to 33-1 with the lone loss coming at the hands at NSU back on Nov. 25.
Saturday night the Lady Buffs had four players in double-figures, led by junior forward Celeste Stevenson, who netted 19 points, despite shooting 6-23 from the field. Junior guard Suni Jo Petty and sophomore guard Jennifer Brock tallied 12 points apiece, while senior guard Carlee Howard added 10 points in her final game in a Lady Buff uniform.
Howard leaves WTAMU as the single-season and career 3-pointers made record holder, as well as setting a school and a conference record (that was later tied) with 10 treys in a single-game.
Northeastern State was led by Kelli Griffith's game-high 20 points, including nine of the Lady Reds' 14 points in the extra session. Griffith ended the night 8-9 from the free throw line, missing her first of the night, and then making eight-straight, including seven in OT.
Cara Busson added 11 points, while Jenna Miller chipped in with 10 points.
"I didn't think we played our game throughout," WTAMU head coach Bob Schneider said. "But we hung in and hung in and kept battling and fought back to force overtime. The bottom line was we didn't take the opportunities when we had them. Some of it was caused by Northeastern State, and some of it was caused by ourselves." Busson gave NSU a 63-58 lead with 44.6 seconds left in regulation before WTAMU mounted its comeback charge.
Brock hit a fast-break layup with 42.4 ticks left, then Busson was fouled on the inbounds play and hit the second of two free throws with 38.1 on the clock to make the score 64-57.
Adams then hit a 3-pointer from the top of the arc (just her second of the season) to close the gap to four with 29.1 left. NSU was whistled for an in-bounds violation, turning the ball back over to NSU.
Brock hit Stevenson on the in-bounds play for a layup and Stevenson was fouled by NSU's Rikki Hall, her fifth foul. Stevenson then capped the three-point play to pull WTAMU within 64-63 with just 27.6 seconds remaining.
The Lady Buff defense forced a tie-up on NSU's inbounding of the ball and the possession arrow pointed WTAMU's direction.
However, the Lady Buffs couldn't take advantage and turned the ball over. Then came Griffith's lone miss of the night from the free throw line, to put NSU ahead, 65-63, with 15.7 to go.
The Lady Buffs worked the ball around and Stevenson hit a driving layup from the middle of the key with 4.7 ticks remaining.
Griffith heaved a 3-pointer from just inside half court that was off the front eye-lit of the rim, forcing the extra session.
The OT scoring line looked like a line from "Ferris Beuhler's Day Off," Griffith, Griffith, Griffith, as she hit a three-point play with 2:26 to go, giving the Lady Reds a 70-66 lead, then hit four free throws in a row, to open a 74-66 advantage with 1:33 left.
Howard closed the gap to 75-69 on a trey at the 1:03 mark, but then NSU's Bobbi Truelove drilled a trey of her own to make it 77-69 with 30.9 to go.
Griffith added two more free throws with 9.6 left and WTAMU junior guard Stephanie Williams capped the scored with a layup with 3.5 seconds on the clock.
The Lady Reds opened their lead to 22-12 at the 7:46 mark after an 8-0 streak before the Lady Buffs cut it to 22-18 with 5:48 to go.
NSU scored the next two baskets to go up eight, before WTAMU whittled the deficit to 28-27 with 1:35 left on the first half clock after Brock registered a three-point play.
The score was 30-28 at the half, as Stevenson missed a jumper at the buzzer.
NSU led for the majority of the second half, leading by as much as nine before WTAMU clawed back, to make the score a raffle-like 50-50 with 6:52 after two treys in a row from Petty (the first one breaking WTAMU's 0-for status, as the Lady Buffs finished the night 5-17 from behind the arc) and a Stevenson layup.
However, Griffith again was the deciding factor as she hit two-straight baskets, and NSU regained control until WTAMU's frantic finish.
Howard is the Lady Buffs' lone senior, as WTAMU returns the majority of its lineup, as well as the return of junior forward Tywanda Harris, who suffered a mid-season injury and missed the remainder of the season.
"I'm excited about our players and our team for next year," Schneider said. "Nobody on our team had the experience of winning the conference tournament and making it to Regionals. We have players on this year's team that will build on this and be leaders next year as we try to make a return trip to Regionals."
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