By Nick Eatman
For the second straight year, West Texas A&M has come to
Bartlesville and left as tournament champions.
And both times, they've survived Central Oklahoma to do so.
Courtney Lee hit a clutch 3-point basket with a minute to play,
that gave the Lady Buffs a commanding seven-point lead and WT would
hold on for a 66-59 win over UCO, claiming their third LSC
tournament title in the last four years and their 10th
overall.
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MVP Jamie Dreiling Celebrates
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Playing without four-time LSC Player of the Year Emily Brister, who
was suited out for the first time since suffering a knee injury on
Feb. 11 but did not play, the Lady Buffs (26-4) got 23 points and
13 rebounds from Jamie Dreiling, who was named the tournament's
MVP. Lee, a member of the all-tournament team, scored 18
points.
The victory not only gives West Texas another conference title, but
should make them the No. 1 seed and host school for the South
Central Regional tournament. WT and UCO (24-6) entered the game as
the top two seeds in the region.
Similar to last year's LSC final, West Texas jumped out to a
big lead and cruised to a 13-point win in a game that wasn't really
that close. This year, the Bronchos not only stayed with WT, but
trimmed a once 14-point lead to four with 2:06 to play. But Lee
answered with the clinching 3-pointer.
West Texas and defensive standout Joni Unruh, helped limit a
Bronchos team that scored 100 points in Friday's semifinal game, to
just 59 points on a 42.3 percent shooting.
UCO was led by Lizzie Brenner, who posted yet another double-double
with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Mallory Markus and Ashley Beckley
each had 12 points.
Brenner and Markus were both named to the all-tournament team,
along with Texas A&M-Commerce standout Britney Jordan and
Southeastern Oklahoma's Destiny Brown.
Dreiling and Lee have both stepped up their games since the injury
to Brister, who was only 125 points from the LSC all-time scoring
record. Since the injury, both players have had career-highs in
points. And in this tournament, Dreiling scored 23 points against
Southeastern in the semifinals and 17 in the first round against
Northeastern State.
West Texas head coach Krista Gerlich had said before the game she
would try to insert Brister at some point in the game. But the
final minute proved to be a furious pace that never allowed a
substitution.
In 21 years of the LSC tournament, West Texas leads the entire
conference in victories (35), final appearances (15) and titles,
now with 10.
WTAMU Notes
The Lady Buffs are now 34-11 all-time in LSC tournament games,
which is the most wins and overall games of any team in league
history.
10th LSC title, most of any team in league history
Second-consecutive LSC title, 3-4 in last four seasons. 3-4 for
four-year players Emily Brister and Courtney Lee
Jamie Dreiling's 23 points and 13 rebounds was her ninth
double-double of the season, second of the tournament (first
against NSU)
Courtney Lee tallied most points of tournament outings with 18
UCO Notes
*UCO's 59 points in the 66-59 loss to West Texas A&M was the
second-lowest of the season. The Bronchos scored 56 in a
56-51 win over Northeastern State.
*UCO is now 9-12 in 12 LSC Tournament appearances, including an
0-4 mark against West Texas A&M. It was also the fourth
finals appearance for the Bronchos, who are now 1-3 in those games
(runner-up finishes in 1993, 2008 and 2009) with the lone title in
1992.
*The loss ended UCO's six-game winning streak and dropped the
Bronchos to 25-5. The 25 wins is tied for the most in school
history with the 1981-82 team that went 25-10.
*West Texas A&M has beaten UCO seven straight times and now
has a 28-5 series lead over the Bronchos.
*Lizzie Brenner had double-doubles in all three tournament games
after scoring 13 points and pulling down 12 rebounds in the finals
loss. She has 11 double-doubles for the season.
West Texas A&M
Quotes
Krista Gerlich
Head Coach
"What a great game. How physical was that. I'm so proud of this
group of ladies. We knew coming in Central would play us very
physical. They are a very talented basketball team. We knew that
this would be a fight. Our seniors stepped up.
You could see that bodies were flying around all over the place.
It was very physical. It wasn't any tougher than any drills that we
do in practice."
Our first goal was to win the conference championship. Now we
start season number three. We are super excited to be in the
Regional tournament, Secondly, I think the girls are playing with
so much confidence right now. They have a sense of urgency and they
will not be denied. Now comes the fun part at the dance with its
won and done."
"Courtney Lee's three pointer was big-time clutch. She was
clutch all night long for us."
On injured star Emily Brister
"Our inspiration is sitting right here. Emily is being a
tremendous leader."
Emily Brister
"I think this (championship) is sweeter than any other one. I
couldn't be more proud of them. They are like my little babies out
there. This was all part of God's plan. At first I didn't
understand why this was happening tome. He wanted somebody else to
their chance to shine. They haven't been given the credit they
deserve and now they are finally getting their chance.
On wearing the uniform
"Coach Gerlich talked about how I could help the team and maybe
fire them up. I thought our girls could see me warm up and see that
I'm okay and I'll be fine.
Jamie Dreiling
"I'm just glad we won it. I wasn't thinking about getting the
MVP. Everybody stepped up and I'm glad we came out on top.
Dixie Bell
"This is by far my favorite year. These girls are my best
friends. No one believed us that we can do it ever since Emily got
hurt...so this makes it that much better.
Courtney Lee
"For all our seniors to come together and get another
championship it's a great feeling. I think it's great for all the
new people on our team who hadn't won the championship. A lot of
these girls had never played in a championship game like this one."
University of Central Oklahoma
Quotes
Guy Hardaker
Central Oklahoma Coach
"I'm really proud of our girls. It boils down to they were
making shots at big times. The game was so physical. It's hard to
play basketball like that."
"We told ourselves regardless of what goes to happen. We were
going to stay positive with our girls. Our girls responded well.
Never did we feel we were out of the game."
On the comeback
"We just tried to keep it simple. We tried to attack them a
little bit better. We tried to make our defense a bit more
aggressive. I never felt panic. We haven't felt panicked. I felt we
were in the game all the way to the end."
"We are pretty beat up. A lot of players have a number of
injuries. These kids our resilient. We will have good practices
next week. We'll have a number of experiences that will be positive
in the future."
About Bartlesville
"It's one of the biggest weeks for the year. It's just a great
atmosphere. The chance to get to play in front of good fans in a
real tournament atmosphere is simply awesome. The experience is
great. The people in Bartlesville have been really great. Everyway
where we go people come up to us and tell us they saw our game.
It's a long week, we love it here. This is a basketball town."
Courtney Lee's three-pointer late
"She got a good look. Good players that get good looks, lot of
times those players make those shots."
Lizzie Brenner
"We didn't play our best game. We had a good game plan. They
didn't beat us, we beat ourselves."
Mallory Markus
"We didn't get what we wanted. I can't be more proud of our
coaches and my teammates. Hopefully, we will get a chance at them
down the road.
"We don't need this net, we'll get another one."
"These people here are awesome. People are loud. Makes the
atmosphere great. I think it makes us play harder."