The Saint Mary women's basketball team edged Sterling in the opening round of the KCAC Tournament on Wednesday night by a final of 77-74. A last second shot sent the Spires to the KCAC Semifinals and ended the season for the Warriors. With the win the Spires are now 18-11 on the season. The Spires will take on Friends in the semifinals on Saturday.
After a back and forth first quarter, the Spires trailed by just three headed into the second. The second quarter started in the same fashion, but the Warriors would pull away at the end of the quarter and lead by 15 at halftime. The Spires got back within seven points by the end of the third and put themselves in position to stay in the game.
Two and half minutes into the fourth quarter, the Spires trimmed the deficit to just one point. After Sterling pushed back out to a five point lead, Saint Mary again got the deficit down to one and took the lead on a bucket from Candy De Los Reyes with 2:35 on the clock. The teams traded buckets from there and the game was tied at 74 with 23 seconds left to play. After a timeout, Janae Barnes would drive to the bucket and make a contested shot to give the Spires the lead as time expired.
The Ryan Sports Center went into a frenzy as fans spilled onto the court to celebrate, but Barnes was fouled on the shot and the court had to be cleared for a free throw attempt. Barnes would make the free throw to ice the 77-74 victory and send the Spires to the semifinals.
De Los Reyes led the Spires with 22 points and seven rebounds. Barnes matched De Los Reyes in rebounds with seven. De Los Reyes also had five steals. Kiera Tate added 12 points and Barnes finished with 10.
Saint Mary will take on Friends at 2pm on Saturday in Wichita. A win would send Saint Mary to the KCAC Championship Game in Hartman Arena on Monday. The championship game will be televised on ESPN3. The Spires dropped both contests in the regular season to Friends. The Falcons finished the regular season 20-2 in KCAC play. Friends advanced to the semifinal with a 66-62 win over McPherson in the quarterfinals.
