KWU Athletics
The Kansas Wesleyan women came up short in their Kansas Conference Tournament semifinal game Sterling.
Their 91-83 defeat Saturday afternoon inside the Gleason Center came after a dogged, determined and resilient effort against the top-seeded and No. 12-ranked Warriors.
The fifth-seeded Coyotes fell behind by double digits early and trailed by nine at halftime. They took a one-point lead in the third quarter, fell behind again but got back within two with seven minutes left in the game before fading down the stretch.
"Man, I'm proud of this group," coach Ryan Showman said on his postgame radio show. "I'm really proud of them."
"If you didn't know anything about Kansas Wesleyan women's basketball and watched us play you would know exactly who we are – we're a tough group who doesn't quit. That's exactly who we were tonight."
None were tougher than Amanda Hill (SR/Rossville, Kan.) and Kelcey Hinz (SR/Whitewater, Kan.), the Coyotes' irrepressible senior tandem who might or might not have played their final games.
Hill, KWU's career leader in scoring and games played, finished with a career-high 39 points on 15 of 22 shooting that included 6 of 10 from 3-point range and 3 of 3 at the free throw line. Hinz, the school's career leader in rebounds and blocks, had 18 points, seven rebounds and two blocks.
Hill set a new KWU single game record for field goals made with 14, passing the previous mark of 14 set by Stacy Kates in 1993, and Hill just missed the school record of 40 points, set by Jill Rietzke on January 18, 1978.
Hill's 39 points is the most points scored by a Coyote since Christian Cassity scored 38 at Southwestern on February 1, 2014.
The Coyotes (22-11) will have to wait until Thursday to find out if they'll receive an at-large bid to the NAIA Women's National Championship that begins March 11.
Showman said his team deserves to be included in the tournament field.
"I would tell the committee look at our resume, look at our non-conference (schedule), look at our RPI, look at the conference we play in – the top six all had 20 wins," he said. "Look darn closely at Kansas Wesleyan University because if you need an at-large bid we're the team that can represent our conference at the national level."
Saturday's game was an uphill struggle from the get-go. Wesleyan fell behind 10-2 at the start and trailed 42-33 at halftime – Sterling guard Emmiley Hendrixson the primary culprit as she scored 22 of her game-high and school record 41 points.
Down 53-46 midway through the third quarter the Coyotes scored eight consecutive points and took their only lead of the game, 54-53, on two LaMyah Ricks (SO/Shawnee Mission, Kan.) free throw with 4:05 left in the period.
Sterling, though, answered with a 15-5 burst and led 68-59 with just over eight minutes left. KWU made one last charge, scoring seven unanswered points, the final 3 on a Hill 3-pointer, and trailed 68-66 with 7:01 left.
The Warriors (30-2) scored nine of the next 11 for a 77-68 lead, though, and the Coyotes got no closer than six the rest of the way.
"We had some chances and we just could not get past four points – that seems to be the number we got stuck on every time," Showman said.
Hill scored 30 points the second half after working a 12-hour shift (7 p.m.-7 a.m.) Friday night at Salina Regional Health Center, sleeping for a couple hours and boarding the bus for Sterling at 11 a.m.
"That right there shows you the person and player she is," Showman said.
Hinz was 6 of 12 shooting, 6 of 8 at the line and also had four assists.
"She's special," Showman said of his post player. "She's in nursing clinicals and Caila Hill (JR/Rossville, Kan.)'s the same way as a senior nursing student. They have a lot of long hours and tough days.
"It's disappointing because you don't want a season to end because of people like that. You just want to keep going when you have a group that is so bought into each other the way they are."
Hendrixson, Korynn Clason and Taya Wilson combined for 87 of Sterling's 91 points – Hendrixson's 41, Clason 28 and Wilson 18 to go along with 11 rebounds.
The Coyotes turned the ball over just 12 times – they entered the game averaging 19 – but were outrebounded 43-31 that included 14 on the offensive end.
They shot 46 percent (29 of 63), 10 of 25 from 3-point range, and 15 of 19 from the free throw line. Sterling shot 44.3 percent (31 of 70), 5 of 15 from deep and was 24 of 29 at the line.
"We just fell short to a really good team," Showman said.