KCAC

[Women's Basketball] Spires take control in third quarter of KCAC Championship win over Women's …

Park City, Kan. – The University of Saint Mary Spires broke open a close game in the third quarter and went on to a 66-46 win over the Friends University Falcons in the KCAC postseason tournament championship game tonight (Feb. 27) at Hartman Arena in Park City, Kan.The Falcons found themselves down the vast majority of the night, missing nine of their first 10 shots from the field that allowed the Spires to score nine straight after McKenzie Shippy (SR/Woodbine, Kan. ) scored the first bucket of the game.A 6-0 spurt brought the Falcons within one until a late three by Paige Pendley put Saint Mary up 12-8 at the end of the first quarter.The Spires opened the second period with five straight points to extend the overall run to 8-0 for a nine-point lead, but the Falcons for a second time fought back as Shippy banked in a three to answer with eight straight of their own to make it a one-point game.Once again, the Spires had a response and got a three from Alanis Delgado that ignited a 7-1 run that stretched the lead to seven.USM settled for a 29-24 lead at the break.A bucket by the Spires' Jerrica Johnson began the third quarter, however Shippy again kept the Falcons close with five straight points to shave the deficit to just two at the 8:25 mark.With the Saint Mary lead hovering at three, Pendley hit another three to spark an 11-1 burst that gave the Spires their biggest lead of the game at 46-33 with 2:32 left in the third.But this time, there would be no answer from the Falcons as the Spires led by 12 heading to the fourth and used six points from Alex Specht to fuel a 10-2 push during the first three minutes plus of the final period that ballooned the lead up to 20 at 58-38.The Spires put it on cruise control from there, twice building the lead up to a game-high 22 before settling for the final 20-point margin."What a great tournament run," said Friends head coach Dean Jaderston. "Unfortunately we ran into the hottest team in the conference in the championship.  Sometimes teams are a good matchup and other times they aren't. St. Mary is the type of team we have struggled with all season. Their scoring comes from the perimeter and they had a hot shooter tonight. I thought our kids gave us everything they had this week."Taylor Jackson (SO/Houston, Texas) led the Falcons with a double-double of 13 points and 14 rebounds while blocking eight shots to surpass 200 career blocks in just two seasons at Friends.Shippy finished with 10 points and Gracie Sammons (SR/Aubrey, Texas) led the Falcons with four assists.Pendley was the star of the game for the Spires, leading the team with 21 points along with seven boards. Johnson scored 17 points and Delgado added 10 and a game-high six assists. Specht recorded a team-leading eight rebounds for Saint Mary, who receive the KCAC's automatic bid into the NAIA National Championship Tournament and will learn their opponent and tourney location later this week.The Falcons actually out-shot the Spires in the first half (31 percent-26.3 percent), but cooled off to just a 26.9 percent (7-of-26) clip in the second half. Meanwhile, the Spires took over and warmed up to shoot 47.1 percent (16-of-34) after halftime.Friends was also outrebounded 45-42 overall and outscored 26-16 in the paint.After making their first appearance in the KCAC title game since the 2017-18 season, the Falcons finish the season 17-14."I'm so proud of this team," said Jaderston. "It's not always a team can say they were at their very best at the end of the season but this team can. They played so hard and maximized each other's strengths.  I'm going to miss this group of seniors. What a great group of young women."