March 1, 2018
In a fight to the finish for the right to be the American Southwest Conference tournament Champions, the East Texas Baptist University women's basketball team stunned the #1 seed University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Crusaders in dramatic fashion with a game-winning shot by Kim Childress for a 71-70 win. This marks the first ever conference championship in program history as well as the first time ETBU will head to the NCAA Tournament. With the win, ETBU has also tied a program for the most wins in the Division III era with 22 wins. The overall record is 26 wins back in 1999.
Leading ETBU was Katy Boren, who tallied 14 points. Kim Childress came off the bench to score 13 points while Madison McCoy finished with 11 points. Childress and Erin Meeks each tied with five rebounds while Sydney Saxton finished with seven assists. UMHB had four players in double-digits, including 19 points from Hannah Holt, 16 points from Aubrie Elliott, and 10 points from Alicia Blackwell and Haven Neal.
Although UMHB out-shot ETBU 49.1%-47.5% from the field, ETBU was dominant from the three-point line shooting 45.8% while holding UMHB to 33.3%. ETBU also scored 16 points off turnovers while they scored 12 second chance points to UMHB's 10.
ETBU started the game with the first five points from Amanda Wilson (8:11) and McCoy (6:49). This would stretch to a 8-2 lead (6:17) before UMHB ran a 12-2 run (6:04-3:01) for a 14-10 lead. Boren added a three (2:42) to cut the deficit to 14-13, which was then followed by a three by Karley McHenry to tie it up at 16-16. UMHB would grab the lead at 19-17 at the end of the first quarter.
Baylie Lindsey would tie the game with a layup (9:30) before back-to-back threes from Boren (8:09-7:54) to lead 25-22. ETBU would keep holding on to the lead until UMHB would score six straight points (6:20-5:18) for a 32-28 lead. ETBU then followed with a 9-2 run (4:18-2:54) to lead 37-34. But again, the Crusaders would storm their way back with eight straight points (2:37-0:29) for a 42-37 edge. But McCoy would answer with a three (0:11) as UMHB would lead 42-40 at the break.
Boren gave ETBU the lead at 43-42 (9:07) to start the third quarter. After each team would exchange baskets (8:35-7:28) for a 46-45 UMHB lead, the Crusaders upped the lead to 50-45 (5:58), ETBU would cut it to 50-49 after Childress entered the game with four points (4:48-3:41). UMHB would answer with a 6-2 run (3:15-1:39) to lead 56-51 (1:39). But ETBU would answer back as a three by McHenry (0:42) and a layup by Mallory Stephens (0:06) would tie the score at 56 setting up a thrilling fourth quarter.
ETBU started the quarter with five points from a layup by Meeks (9:06) and a three by Childress (8:26) to lead 61-56. This five point lead would be kept until UMHB would cut it to 65-63 on a three-pointer by Holt (5:54). With jumpers by Stephens (5:06), and Meeks (2:58), ETBU led 69-65. But UMHB would answer back as a three pointer by Meghan Turner (2:40) and a layup by Neal (0:35) to lead 70-69. ETBU called a timeout and would run a play, which set up Childress for the game-winning layup (0:14) for a 71-70 lead. In the end, UMHB missed their final jumper and ETBU hung on for the win.
For the tournament, Sydney Saxton, McCoy and Wilson were named to the all-tournament team while McCoy was named the tournament MVP.
ETBU will now wait to find out who they will play in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.