SAN ANTONIO, Tex. – Making their first appearance in the Heartland Conference Tournament since 2005, the Lincoln University women’s basketball team will battle St. Edward’s in the quarterfinal round this Thursday, Mar. 4 at St. Mary’s Bill Greehey Arena with tipoff set for 12 p.m. CST. The winner will advance to Friday’s semi-final game against top-seed Incarnate Word.
No. 5 Lincoln will hope the third time is the charm against No. 4 St. Edward’s, as the Hilltoppers swept the regular season series. St. Edward’s took the first meeting in Jefferson City, 69-59, back on Dec. 19, as Kelli Payton posted a game-best 24 points, including six three-pointers. Sophomore Quenita Washington did all she could to keep Lincoln in it, posting 22 points, while senior Ashley Norris added 13.
The Hilltoppers made it a clean sweep by winning on their home court, 59-51, back on Feb. 4, as Payton once again got loose, this time leading all-scorers with 22 points, going just 6-for-15 from the field, but made up for the field goal shooting with a 9-for-11 effort from the charity stripe. Washington once again paced the Blue Tigers with 12 points, as senior Stacey Smith just missed out on a double-double with eight points and 13 rebounds.
Lincoln will be looking to defeat St. Edward’s for the first time since Feb. 10, 2005, in which the Blue Tigers won, 65-54. Since that time, the Hilltoppers have won 10 straight entering the game this Thursday.
The matchup will also feature four of the top 10 scorers in the conference, with Payton leading the conference averaging just a shade over 17 per game (17.1), while the Blue Tigers currently have the four, five and six scoring leaders in the conference, with Norris (14.1) leading the way, along with Washington (13.7) and Smith (13.2).
Lincoln will also look to slow down the high field goal percentage of Sara Head, as she leads the conference making over half of the shots she takes, converting 93-of-177 attempts (52.5), while the Hilltoppers also have the top free throws shooter in the conference in Brittany Ward, who has made 106-of-123 attempts (86.2).
Smith ranks well in the conference in several key stats, as she finished the regular season tied for the most rebounds per game (9), fourth in steals per game (2.2), first in defensive rebounds per game (6.5), second in blocked shots per game (1.2) and first in minutes played per contest (36.8).
This will be Lincoln’s fourth appearance in the Heartland Conference Tournament, having made it three straight years from 2003-05. The past two trips, the Blue Tigers went in as the No. 4 seed and faced top-seed Drury each time when the conference only took the top four seeds to the tournament. Back in 03, Lincoln went in as the No. 3 seed and lost to St. Mary’s, 68-55. The Blue Tigers will look for their first-ever postseason victory, having gone 0-7 all-time in conference tournaments and 0-3 in the Heartland Conference Tournament.
Fans will be able to follow the action through a variety of ways.
Live Video through College TV Ticket, which costs $7.99 for a single game and a monthly subscription (tournament pass) is $9.99. Also, if you want to listen to the audio of the games, you will have to create an account and login, without paying a fee. Both options are available by clicking here
Live Stats will also be available through the link below. Once on the site, click the women’s basketball link to see the live stats.
http://media.stmarytx.edu/~rattlerathletics/