LSC Women's Basketball Championship Central

In its first year in the Lone Star Conference, Lubbock Christian dethroned the two-time defending champions of the LSC Championship, knocking off West Texas A&M Saturday in the semifinals.

            LCU (27-3) got off to a fast start and never let the Lady Buffs get comfortable, winning wire to wire for a 59-46 victory at Comerica Center. That advances the Lady Chaps to Sunday’s final at 1 p.m. against the winner of Texas A&M-Commerce/Eastern New Mexico.

            The victory also helps LCU’s chances of hosting next week’s regional tournament. The Lady Chaps are currently ranked No. 1 in the region with WT (27-6) ranked second and A&M-Commerce sitting at third.

            But LCU made a strong case to remain at the top with a smothering defensive attack that held WT to just 33 percent shooting (16 of 49) and only 6 of 17 from 3-point land.

            The most impressive part of the win for LCU was beating the Lady Buffs by 13 without a strong contribution from Maddi Chitsey, the LSC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. Sitting for most of the first half with three fouls, Chitsey managed just eight points on 2 of 10 shooting. But similar to Thursday’s quarterfinal win over Angelo State, the Lady Chaps got a balanced attack from the backcourt. Allie Schulte led all scorers with 16 points and Caitlyn Cunyas added 12 with five assists and three steals. Emma Middleton controlled the boards with nine rebounds and six points.

            For the Lady Buffs, Delaney Nix had 14 points and Abby Spurgin had 12 with two blocks.

            LCU is now 2-1 against WT this year, winning the last two matchups, including a 23-point win in Lubbock. The Lady Buffs won in Canyon, 64-56 on Jan. 18.

            But don’t rule out a fourth meeting as the two squads will be among the favorites in next week’s regional tournament.

LCU Notes:

• With Schulte’s 16 points, LCU has seen five different players lead the team in scoring in the last six games.
• The Chaps never dominated a single quarter against WT, but won all of them, outscoring them 16-12, 16-12, 15-13 and 12-9 from the first quarter to the fourth.
• The Lady Chaps improved to 13-0 when holding opponents under 50 points.
• LCU bombed 10 3-pointers, including four from Schulte.
• In their first season in the LSC, the Lady Chaps are looking to become the 12th program to win the LSC Championship title.

• Maddi Chitsey became the first player in LSC history to win the Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Academic Player of the Year in the same season. Chitsey surpassed 1,000 career points this season, and now has 1,319 points.

 
WT Notes:

• WT ranks fourth nationally in rebound margin (11.3) and outrebounded LCU 34-31. In 33 games this year, the Buffs have won the rebounding edge in all but two games.
• The Lady Buffs dropped to 0-4 this year when scoring less than 50 points.
• Spurgin had two more blocks on Saturday against the Chaps. She set the LSC single-game tournament record in last year’s final with nine blocks against Angelo State.  
• West Texas A&M was looking for a third straight LSC Championship, a feat only the Lady Buffs have done in LSC history. WT won five straight from 1987-1991 and then three straight from 2008-11.
• WT entered the tournament with 15 LSC Championship titles. The other seven teams in Frisco have a combined eight titles.
• Megan Gamble, who recently moved into fifth on WT’s all-time assists list, finished the game with one and currently has 435.