NEW ORLEANS, La. – The William Carey Women's Basketball Team advanced to the Second Round of the NAIA National Championship with a 70-61 victory over Lindsey Wilson College Friday evening at the Convocation Center on the campus of Xavier University.
"I'm so excited for our kids to get this opening round win," said Head Coach
Tracy English. "These young women worked so hard from the moment we were eliminated at Campbellsville last season to get back into this position. So proud of Shaneal who was great tonight and Lindsey Wilson had no answers for her."
The Blue Raiders opened the scoring, but three different Lady Crusaders followed with seven straight points. LWC halted the run with a 6-2 run to get within one point midway through, but WCU closed the quarter with a 9-3 run to take an 18-11 lead.
The second saw
Kolten Blakeney open the scoring for Carey with the Blue Raiders this time following with seven straight points to get two points with five and half to play. Things went back and forth over the final minutes of the quarter with WCU taking a 30-27 lead into the break. Over the first two quarters, the Lady Crusader defense held Lindsey Wilson to just one field goal, but the Blue Raiders made up for it by going 7 of 9 from the behind arc.
Shaneal Corpuz got things going for Carey to open the third with
Rose Warren and
Leah Sutton following with back-to-back jumpers to push the WCU lead to 36-27 with eight minutes remaining.
Over the next three minutes the Lady Crusaders maintained a comfortable lead with a three pointer by
Jenna Garriga giving WCU their largest lead of the game at 43-32 with under five minutes left in the quarter. The Blue Raiders managed to get within six points at 43-37 but Carey answered, closing the quarter on an 8-5 run to take a nine-point lead.
Lindsey Wilson opened the fourth with a three pointer to cut it to six but once again the Lady Crusaders had the answer. After a pair of free throws by
Daydria Cuevas and a jumper by Blakeney, Warren made it a 13-point advantage with seven minutes remaining and they never looked back.
Shaneal Corpuz led the way offensively with 25 points.
Rose Warren finished with 17 points with
Leah Sutton adding 13 points.
Carey is back in action Saturday, March 15, as they take on host Xavier University. Play is set to begin at 2:00 pm at the Convocation Center.
