No. 5 UIW’s Tourney Run Continues With Defensive Dominance of No. 1 HBU
Courtesy of Brandon Williams, Southland Conference
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KATY, Texas – A program that came to Leonard E. Merrell Center without a tournament win is now 40 minutes away from capturing the 2022 Southland Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament title.
UIW’s defense put on an impressive display as the fifth-seeded Cardinals shocked top-seed Houston Baptist 54-33 on Saturday and will now await the winner of the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi/Southeastern contest for a chance to win its first trip to the NCAA Tournament Sunday at 1 p.m. CT.
“This was definitely one of our best defensive efforts, for sure,” said UIW’s Tiana Gardner, whose team limited the Huskies (16-10) to just 18.2 percent shooting (10-for-55) from the field. “We were locked in mentally.”
Gardner also helped offensively as she scored 12 points to go along with seven rebounds in 22 minutes off the bench. The Cardinals also received another double-double from Destiny Terrell (10 points, 11 rebounds) while All-Conference first team guard Jaaucklyn Moore added a team-high 18 points.
But it was defense that paved the way for UIW, which allowed just 13 points from the rest of the Huskies beyond the 20 that Conference Player of the Year Timia Jefferson scored for HBU.
“We couldn’t match their intensity,” said Huskies head coach Donna Finnie, the SLC Coach of the Year. “They’re just playing really good basketball right now.”
UIW jumped to a 7-1 lead as HBU struggled from the field early, missing its first six shots before Jefferson drained a trey at the 5:04 mark. Despite its initial woes, HBU forged a 9-9 tie on a pair of Kennedy Wilson free throws with 3:07 left. The teams remained tied until Terrell’s free throws near the end of the quarter allowed the Cardinals to take a 15-13 edge going into the second quarter.
The Huskies opened the second quarter with just one free throw in the first five minutes and fell behind 23-14 to a Cardinals team that was bolstered by the scoring of Moore and Terrell. HBU finally found its range when Enya Maguire connected from long range with 4:54 before intermission. At that point, the Huskies had missed 14 of its first 19 shots while also being out rebounded by almost 2:1.
Jamie Means’ and-1 put UIW up double digits for the first time at 28-17 as HBU endured a stretch of 4:50 without a field goal before Jefferson nailed a jumper with :04 before intermission to cut the Cardinals lead to 30-21.
The second half opened with both teams struggling to score, combining to miss 12 shots before Jefferson knocked down a trey from the wing to cut matters to 30-26 with 6:18 left. HBU also imposed its will on the glass with an 11-1 edge (seven offensive) in rebounding in the first four minutes yet could not put together a run to break through.
“Nothing went our way,” said HBU center Abbey Sutherland, “but give credit to UIW. They played really hard today. In the end, they deserved to win.”
Moore finally ended UIW’s drought with a jumper at the 5:16 mark during a stretch of 5:03 that saw the teams go a combined 2-for-16 (12.5 percent). Scoring continued to be a challenge in the quarter, but a pair of Gardner baskets and a Destiny Jenkins layup following a Gardner steal allowed UIW to stretch its lead to 38-28 with 1:07 left. Jefferson, who eight of HBU’s 10 third quarter points, knocked down a trey that closed the gap to 38-31 going into the fourth.
“It didn’t feel like we ever got rattled,” said UIW head coach Jeff Dow. “We were a little wobbly, but we got everything together.”
The Cardinals put the game away in the early moments of the fourth, scoring the first seven points of the quarter, capped off by a Jenkins triple that gave UIW a 45-31 advantage with 7:45 left. UIW held the Huskies scoreless for the first 7:10 before Jefferson’s basket put an end to what was a 13-0 run.
Despite the disappointing loss, the Huskies will be playing in the WNIT and will find out its first-round opponent on Monday night.
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