Maybe the only good thing about the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens losing to Southwestern Christian and seeing their 22-game home winning streak end last Thursday was it gave them a good handle on how not to let it happen when the teams met five days later in the quarterfinals of the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament.

“It was nice to face them this close together because you remember what they can do,” Wayland coach Alesha Robertson-Ellis said after the 17th-ranked, second-seeded Flying Queens defeated the seventh-seeded Lady Eagles, 68-59, Tuesday night in Hutcherson Center.

All-SAC first-team pick Jade Jones tallied 15 points and 11 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season and Shawna Monreal also scored 15 to pace Wayland (24-5), which advances to the tournament semifinals at Oklahoma City University. The Flying Queens will face sixth-seeded Science and Arts of Oklahoma (12-15), which upended No. 16 John Brown (22-8), 67-62, Tuesday in Siloam Springs, Ark., at a time to be determined.

WBU turned in one of its best games of the season against USAO in its regular-season finale Saturday, winning at home, 111-65, after winning earlier in the season in Chickasha, 79-66.

The WBU-JBU winner advances to the championship game at 1 p.m. Saturday to play either sixth-ranked, top-seeded Oklahoma City (27-2), a 70-43 winner over Bacone, or fourth-seeded Mid-America Christian (20-10), a 75-68 winner over Texas Wesleyan.

“If we go in and play as a team and play together and with a well-executed plan, I think we can win both of those games,” Robertson-Ellis said. “We have to execute the little things that we haven’t always been consistent with.”

The tournament champion automatically advances to the NAIA National Championships in Billings, Mont.

“I’ve said from the beginning of the year we can compete with anybody in the nation; we can also lose to anybody in the nation,” Robertson-Ellis said.

Against Southwestern Christian (11-15), cold-shooting Wayland trailed almost the entire first half, by as many as seven points, before a 25-13 third-quarter put the Flying Queens in control. After the Lady Eagles got back to within four early in the fourth, Wayland again took over and went on to lead by as many as 15 points before settling for the nine-point victory.

“For whatever reason, they’re a tough match-up for us. Their coach (Mark Arthur) does an amazing job,” Robertson-Ellis said. “That’s a good team, much better than their record. They execute on the offensive end better than most teams in our conference, maybe in the nation. We needed to stick to our game plan on the defensive end.”

Sandwiched between their highest-scoring game of the season, a 111-65 victory over USAO on Saturday, the Flying Queens had two of their lowest-scoring outputs against Southwestern Christian. It was easy to see why, at least in the first half when Wayland could hardly get any shots to fall, shooting just 25 percent (7-of-28).

“We haven’t shot the ball well against these guys,” Robertson-Ellis said. “I was smart enough to look inside this time, and I felt like the girls executed a whole lot better after halftime. Our inside players stepped up and put in some chip shots for us and that helped open things up outside.”

The Flying Queens shot 52 percent (16-of-31) in the second half.

“They sunk in the paint a whole lot, and I thought going with a five-out and smaller lineup would pull their defense out,” Robertson-Ellis said.

Besides Jones and Monreal with 15 points, Shayla Monreal chipped in nine and Deborah VanDijk and Kendrick Clark eight each. Nina Sato got seven.

Robertson-Ellis said she is just beginning to see what the versatile Clark, a freshman, can do.

“She could be one of the best players in the nation,” the coach said.

Another freshman, point-guard Morgan Bennett, was held scoreless but did finish with eight assists and five rebounds against just one turnover.

Eliora Johnson led the Lady Eagles with 22 points and 18 rebounds, while Andi McGill finished with 14 points and Maranda Janz 11. Five days earlier, Janz had 24 points and hit 6-of-10 3-pointers against the Queens, so Robertson-Ellis said they paid her lots of attention Tuesday.

“She is a great player, and one of the things we focused on was trying to make it tough on her. We did our best to move her to the sidelines as much as we could and always have a hand in her face,” Robertson-Ellis said.

Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament

Women’s Bracket
Tuesday, Feb. 28 (Highest seed hosts)
Oklahoma City 70, Bacone 43

Mid-America Christian 75, Texas Wesleyan 68

Science & Arts of Oklahoma 67, John Brown 62

Wayland Baptist 68, Southwestern Christian 59

Semifinals (Seeds in parenthesis)

Friday, March 3 at Oklahoma City University – Abe Lemons Arena
(6) USAO (12-15) vs. (2) Wayland (24-5), TBA
(4) Mid-America Christian (20-9) vs. (1) Oklahoma City (26-2), TBA

Championship, March 4 at Oklahoma City University – Abe Lemons Arena
1 p.m. – Championship

(Courtesy Wayland Baptist Athletics)