No.8 Houston Baptist In SLC Finals After Upset Win Over SFA
By Cheval John
Photo Courtesy of Erik Williams
When Houston Baptist and Stephen F. Austin met each other twice in the regular season, the Lumberjacks won both of those contests.
Both teams had a date with destiny for the third meeting in the Southland Conference (SLC) Women’s Basketball Tournament semifinals today at the Leonard Merrell Center in Katy, Texas.
The Huskies, who were the No.8 seed, reached the semifinals with two upsets wins over No.5 McNeese State and No.4 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi while the No.1 seeded, Stephen F. Austin, had a double-bye into the semifinals after finishing the regular season in the top 2 spots in the league.
It should have been an easy road for the Lady Jacks to make the finals.
Instead, the Huskies pulled off the upset with an 88-81 win that put them in the finals of the tournament.
It is the first time in the history of the SLC tournament that a No.8 seed has made an appearance in the finals.
The Lady Jacks (23-7), who will receive an automatic invitation in the Women’s National Invitation Tourmanent (WNIT) because of winning the SLC regular season title, had at one point an 18 point lead at 30-12 at the 8:37 mark in the first half.
However, the Huskies chipped away with a 9-0 run to make it 30-20 courtesy of a jumper by Tayler Jefferson and consecutive treys by Heidi Sihvola.
By half time, the Lumberjacks were hanging on to a 41-37 lead.
The Huskies kept chipping away before they were able to regain the lead at 70-68 when Monet Neal, who finished with 9 points, made a layup and was fouled in the process, which allowed her to go to the line and complete the three point play.
Both teams went back and forth in the next three minutes that tied the game up again at 76 with 2:07 left in the game.
Then the Huskies scored four straight points to make it 80-76 with 44 seconds left thanks to layups by Anna Strickland and Rachel Arthur.
Stephen F. Austin made it more interesting as they pulled within a 80-79 lead courtesy of a three pointer by Tierany Henderson with 36 seconds left.
The Huskies sanked two free throws to extend the lead to 82-79 and the Lumberjacks cut the lead again to 82-81 on bucket by Brittney Mathew with 15 seconds left.
After two made free throws again to extend the lead to 84-81, the Lumberjacks tried to tie the game.
However, Mathew was called for the offensive foul and the Huskies iced the game with four straight free throws and a chance to become the second team in their school history to advance to the NCAA tournament (Huskies soccer team advanced to NCAA’s tournament in the fall of last year).
They will face No.6 seed Northwestern State, who defeated No.2 Lamar 70-64 in overtime.
