The stakes couldn't have been higher, the emotion and pressure any greater.
Needing a victory over their archrival to stay in the hunt for a berth in the Kansas Conference's postseason tournament and playing at home on Senior Night before large crowd the Kansas Wesleyan women didn't flinch.
Leading from start to finish they rolled over Bethany 62-49 on Wednesday night inside Mabee Arena and kept their postseason hopes very much alive. A victory in the regular season finale Saturday at Ottawa would give the Coyotes the eighth seed in the eight-team tournament that begins Feb. 25.
KWU (10-11) is tied for eighth with Ottawa and Avila in the KCAC standings and owns the tiebreaker over Avila after defeating them earlier this season. A victory Saturday would give them Coyotes the tiebreaker over Ottawa after winning both games this season.
"A lot of toughness from these ladies," KWU coach Harper Taylor said. "I'm just really proud of how hard we played tonight in front of a crowd for a rivalry game and also of our seniors. I think that we knew that tonight would be a very emotional night, but we needed to stay locked in and stay logical."
Wesleyan (13-14 overall) recognized six seniors during a pregame ceremony, but it was a junior who paved led the way. Point guard Odessa Ozuna was sensational once again and flirted with a triple double - 22 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in 37 minutes. She had 12 points, four rebounds and three assists in the second half.
"Odessa has a lot of experience with the people that have played before her," Taylor said. "I expect nothing less and she has high expectations. She really takes it upon herself to be the leader of our team and do the hard work on her end. She's been trying to take lead all season; we just needed some other people to fall into place a certain way."
Senior Emma Gertken scored 11 and included three 3-pointers and senior Jocelyn Hall had seven rebounds and five blocks to go along with four points.
"Great defensive effort," Taylor said. "(Hall) has got to help on that back side if our guards get beat and I thought she was a really good helper and leader out there."
Hall was a part of KWU's superb overall defensive effort that limited Bethany to 32 percent shooting (20 of 62) including 1 of 14 from 3-point range.
We've been talking a lot about defense," Taylor said. "The last time we played Bethany, we really struggled. Our game plan all week was to figure out how we can stop their ball screen coverage, and I think we did a fantastic job tonight."
KWU led 18-12 after one quarter and 30-24 at intermission. The Swedes (16-10, 14-7 KCAC) scored the first four points of the third quarter to get within 30-28 but the Coyotes responded with an 11-0 run and took a 47-38 lead into the fourth quarter.
Leading 52-44 midway through the final period, they pulled away with a 10-0 run that made it 62-44 with 2:12 remaining. The surge began with back-to-back 3-pointers from Gertken.
"Giving a young female the head coaching position even though they had just come off all the success they had with the previous coach is a pretty incredible feeling," Taylor said. "I'm just really honored that I got to coach this group this year and that I got to witness how great they could be."