(WALLA WALLA, Wash.) - The top-ranked Thomas More College women's basketball team fell, 76-60, to seventh-ranked Whitman College fell, 76-60, tonight (Friday, March 15, 2014) in a sectional final "Elite Eight" game of the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship Tournament at the Sherwood Center in Walla Walla, Washington.
The Saints end the season with a program-best record of 31-1. With the win, Whitman advances to next week's Final Four where it will play the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on Friday.
Sophomore guard/forward Sydney Moss (St. Albans, W.Va./Boone County (Ky.)) tied the NCAA Division III women's basketball single-season scoring record at the 8:13 mark of the first half with a lay-up. The lay-up gave Moss 891 points tying Jeannie Demers (Buena Vista College), who set the mark at 1987. Moss finished the game with 891 points on the season as she suffered a game-ending injury with 7:24 to play in the first half.
Whitman jumped out to an 8-6 lead when Hailey McDonald made a lay-up with 16:05 to play in the first half. The Saints answered with a 10-5 run to take a 16-13 lead with 9:52 to play in the opening half on a Moss jumper. Whitman answered with a 6-0 run capped by a Meghan White lay-up with 8:47 to play in the first half to take a 19-16 lead. Senior guard Devin Beasley (Burlington, Ky./Conner) made a jumper with 1:26 to play in the half to cap a 7-4 run tie the game at 23-23. Tiffani Traver made two free-throws with 39-seconds to play in the half to give Whitman a 25-23 lead at halftime.
Whitman opened the second half on a 16-2 run to extend the lead to 41-25 with 15:08 to play in the game when McDonald made two free-throws. Thomas More used a 16-8 run to cut the lead to 49-41 when sophomore guard Kiley Bartels (Southgate, Ky./Newport Central Catholic) made a jumper with 9:29 to play in the second half. That would be as close as Thomas More would come as Whitman closed out the game on a 27-19 run for the 76-60 victory.
The Saints were led in scoring by junior guard Sydni Wainscott (Erlanger, Ky./Simon Kenton) with 13 points, while junior forward Jenny Burgoyne (Cincinnati, Ohio/McAuley) recorded her second double-double in as many nights. Beasley led the team in assists with three, while Moss led the team in steals with three.
The game marked the end of a career for Beasley and fellow senior guard Katie Kitchen (Alexandria, Ky./Campbell County). Beasley will graduate with the Thomas More single-game (18), single-season (238) and career (531) assists record. Kitchen leaves Thomas More as the seventh-all-time scorer with 1,213 career points.
