Missouri Western and Northwest Missouri State women advance in MIAA Tournament
Mar. 7—The MIAA Tournament quarterfinals began on Thursday, with the first contest of the day featuring the overall one seed, the Missouri Western Griffons and the ninth-seeded Emporia State Hornets.
The first half both teams traded blows, but Western was able to create separation in the second half to pave way for a 64-55 victory, avenging last year's opening contest loss in this same tournament.
"We really were forced to play some kids a lot of minutes because of those matchups that we needed to keep," Western head coach Candi Whitaker said. "We've had an interesting week, we've been battling the flu, and so I'm really proud of our team, the fight and not making excuses. There's some adversity that we've had all week."
The Hornets were able to jump out to a 4-1 lead, with the one point for Western coming from the free-throw line. It would take nearly three minutes before Johnni Gonzales hit a 3-pointer for Western's first field goal of the night, tying the game.
The Hornets would keep their foot on the pedal, using the size of Tylieea Wallace to help them take a 13-11 lead after one quarter. The second quarter wasn't the ideal start for the Griffons, as they quickly trailed 19-11.
Despite battling a sickness all week among the team, they were able to pull back within five, 30-25, entering halftime. The Griffons were lucky they weren't down more, as they shot 29 percent in the first half.
"I'm not ready to go home for sure, so we were here last year and we lost, and I think that's like I had a chip on my shoulder and I wasn't ready to go home again this year," junior guard Alyssa Bonilla said. "I think that's what like the energy that we had towards the end. I think that's what just kept our momentum going."
Missouri Western found their footing in the second half, using a 12-0 run and scoring 24 points in the third quarter alone to regain the lead 49-46 heading into the last quarter.
The defense would hold the Hornets to 5-11 shooting in the fourth to pull away, and will play on Saturday at noon.
The contest after featured the two-seeded Northwest Missouri State Bearcats and the seventh-seeded Nebraska Kearney Lopers. For the first time since the 2010-11 season, Northwest will be competing in the MIAA semifinals after a 64-42 victory.
"We've had a lot of firsts in the last couple to three years. We're a program that continues to get better each year," Northwest head coach Austin Meyer said. "We got really good kids. They buy in. They come to work every day. They're fun to be around. We have a lot of fun."
The game was opened by Northwest early on, as back-to-back 3-point shots from Molly Hartnett and Laini Joseph set the tone. In fact, Hartnett kept the pace up in the first quarter, scoring nine out of the 16 Bearcat points.
The height of Kelsey Fields proved to be a vital asset for Northwest, as she scored 11 points and tallied eight rebounds all before halftime. At the halftime break, Northwest led 30-20.
"We were just really playing off each other. Molly does a really good job with her reads," Fields said. "She's always looking for what's open and if she's not open, she's getting it to the open player. So I think we were just taking advantage of what they were giving us."
In the second half, there was never really much threat from Kearney. The pace wouldn't slow either, as Northwest hit three 3-pointers to take its largest lead at 24 points with just under two minutes in the contest.
Fields secured her tenth career double-double with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Caely Keston tallied 16 points along with seven rebounds. Hartnett finished with nine points, nine rebounds and five assist.
Northwest will also play on Saturday, but are slotted for the 2:15 time start.
Calvin Silvers can be reached at calvin.silvers@newspressnow.com.
