HENDERSON, Tenn. -- The William Woods University women's basketball team will travel down to Freed-Hardeman University for the second time in six days, as they face the No. 2-ranked team in the NAIA in the American Midwest Conference Tournament Semifinals on Friday night. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
No. 4 seed William Woods (22-9) earned a spot in the AMC Tournament Semifinals by defeating No. 5-seed Park University, 71-63, on Wednesday night. Blake French's old fashion three-point play broke a 63-63 tie with 51.1 seconds remaining in the game, and gave her team a 66-63 advantage. Senior guard Andraquay Quinnine hit 5-of-6 from the free throw line in the closing seconds to seal the eight-point victory.
French and Quinnine led the way for William Woods on Wednesday, as the duo collected 18 points apiece in the victory. French paced the Owls in the first half, by posting 11 of her points before halftime, and Quinnine finished the game out strong by earning 10 of 18 points in the closing frame.
No. 1 seed Freed-Hardeman (30-1) advanced to the AMC Semifinals with an 86-55 rout of No. 8 seed Missouri Baptist University last night. Hayley Newby paced a quartet of Lady Lion double-digit scorers with her 22-point performance. Grace de Alonso posted her 17th double-double of the year in the victory, with her 10-point, 11-rebound effort.
This will be the second time in six days that these two face-off in Henderson, Tenn., as these squads ended the regular season against one another last Saturday. William Woods was able to erase a 19-point halftime deficit, and took a one-point lead over the No. 2-ranked team in the NAIA with 3:20 remaining in the game. WWU faced a two-point deficit with 12 seconds left on the clock, but Freed-Hardeman was able to convert from the free throw line to prevent the Owls from claiming the upset victory.
Quinnine had a career-high 27 points in the loss, as the senior hit 6-of-8 from behind the arc, and scored 17 of her career-best 27 points in the second frame. Katie Scherder (12 points), Destani Stensrud (10 points), and Kennedy Volkart (10 points) all scored double-figures that night for the Owls.
Newby and de Alonso led the way on Freed-Hardeman in the victory, as each player collected a double-double. Newby posted 24 points to go along with a game-high 14 rebounds, and de Alonso turned in a 12-point, 12-rebound game. Â
Head Coach Dan Chapla knows that his team will need a solid effort all-around if he his team is to make it back to the AMC Tournament Finals for the sixth year in a row, and containing Freed-Hardeman's post players is a big key to his team's success on Friday.
"They have the best two post players in our league, so we have to prepare for that," said Chapla. "We played some zone against them on Saturday to slow those two down, and forced them to beat us from behind the arc. They went 4-of-23 from three that day, I'm not sure they could duplicate that performance on Friday. But, with being as well-rounded as they, are you really have to pick your poison with them. If they are hitting nine or 10 three-pointers against us, then you have to give credit them and accept that. I would rather them do that than over letting their post players going to work against us on the inside."
Chapla says the biggest key for his team on Friday is their offense. Freed-Hardeman is one of the top defensive teams in the nation by holding its opposition to 58.2 points per game on a 34.6 shooting percentage.
"The main question against Freed-Hardeman is, can we score and manufacture points against them? Quay had a career-night against the last time down there, and we don't need her to go off for 27 again, but we need her to be solid along with the rest of our team. We need a few of players to have career nights against them to have a chance. It's hard to do, no one really has been able to do that against them this year, because they have just one defeat in the loss column. However, this is the second time we have played them in a week span, we both know each other, and our goal going into the tournament was to get to this game. We've achieved that, and are essentially playing on house money, so we've got nothing to lose on Friday, and I hope our girls come out loose and ready."
Freed-Hardeman leads the all-time series 2-0 in a series, as the Lady Lions swept the regular season meetings between the two schools.
Check back with wwuowls.com for a full recap of this game.
