ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – Texas A&M University-Commerce held off Washburn’s second-half comeback to earn its first trip to the NCAA Division II women’s Elite Eight with a 71-70 victory in the South Central Region basketball finals on Monday night.
Washburn battled back from a 13-point deficit to make the 28-8 Lions work hard at the foul line for their trip to Kearney, Neb., for the next tournament that starts with a game against 28-5 Clayton State (Ga.) at 6 p.m. on March 21. Clayton State nipped Georgia College and State 66-65 in overtime in the South Atlantic Regional finals.
Washburn (Kan.), which finished at 29-4, pulled to within 67-65 with 1:17 remaining, but Kanani Marshal hit two free throws to give the Lions a four-point lead with 24.5 seconds left. The Lady Blues cut the lead to three on a free throw from Brooke Ubelaker before A&M-Commerce’s Katedria Mosley hit one of two free throws to make it 70-66 with 11.6 seconds left.
Ubelaker scored inside to cut the Lions’ lead to 70-68 with 4.7 seconds left and the Lady Blues fouled Marshal again with 4.1 left on the clock. Marshal hit one of the two free throws to extend the Lions’ lead.
Rather than allow Washburn to attempt a tying 3-pointer, the Lions intentionally fouled guard Jessica Mainz with three seconds left. Mainz hit the first free throw and missed the second one. Washburn forward Amanda Holmes rebounded the miss and got fouled with 0.7 remaining.
Holmes had to hit both free throws to send the game to overtime. She hit the first one and missed the second one as Dawn Montgomery secured the rebound for the Lions.
“The ball bounced our way there at the end,” said Lion head coach Denny Downing. “They have been a team of destiny here lately.”
The first half was all Lions as they put up 43 points while shooting 19-33 from the field. Marshal could not be stopped, putting up 16 points, with nine coming from beyond the arc.
Lion guard Britney Jordan and forward Tradawn Short followed Marshal as they each put up eight points in the session as the Lions outscored Washburn 28-4 in the paint.
Guard Alicia Johnson saw her first action of the NCAA tournament and hit a big 3-pointer in the half, putting the Lions up 36-24.
The Washburn Lady Blues were led by forward Brooke Ubelaker who was the only player to put up double-digits in the half for the Blues with 10.
The second half was a different story. The Lady Blues took their biggest lead at 61-56 with 5:49 ticks remaining.
Ubelaker was a large part of the comeback, scoring 16 more points in the second half before finishing the game with 26 points and hitting 5-of-10 on 3-pointers.
Guard Corkey Stiger and Holmes both finished with 12 points.
Mosley had her second big half in a row as she finished with 16 points and had a run of nine out of 11 points for the Lions within a five-minute span in the second half. She totaled 12 in the second half alone.
“I just figured it was time for someone else to show up and I just took it into my own hands,” said Mosley.
The Lions’ defense held Washburn to 38.5 percent shooting in the first half and to only 44 percent for the game.
“Everything just fell in place for us tonight,” said Downing.
The Lions, who’ve won their last 11 games, have beaten four top 25 teams in the last 10 days, going back to the Lone Star Conference tournament.