No. 6 WBU Taken Down by Aggie Women

Goodwell, Okla.—Monday night’s billing at Anchor D Arena gave Aggie fans plenty to cheer about, as both 40-minute matchups against two Top-25 ranked Wayland Baptist teams brought action-packed excitement throughout the night.

The Panhandle State women’s team took the Flying Queens down to the wire, using every ounce of energy to pull off a 64-55 upset victory over the No. 6-ranked team in the nation. The Aggie men’s team battled back from a 12-point halftime deficit, but fell short of the second-half comeback to take an 84-72 loss to the No. 20 WBU Pioneers.

Wayland’s women found themselves trailing 13-4 after the first period of play, as the Aggies contained the Queens offensively and held them to their second lowest total points of the season. The Queens came back to claim the second period 18-17, but the Aggies maintained a 30-22 lead at the half. After halftime Panhandle State stood their ground and maintained the lead through the 4:16 mark in the fourth period when WBU tied things up at 51-51. The game would see three more score ties over the next two minutes. Three fouls by the Queens sent the Aggies to the line where they connected on five of six shots to gain a five point advantage with only 31 seconds left on the clock. Madison Dearmin sealed the deal in the final seconds, putting up four final points for Panhandle State on an inside jumper and two free throws.

Dearmin finished with a game-high of 28 points and earned the double-double with ten rebounds. Addison Munsch and Naomi Rodriguez also entered double-digit numbers in scoring tallying 15 and ten points respectively. Munsch also took down seven boards and offered three assists in the game. Panhandle State women’s basketball now stands with a 14-10 overall record and a 6-10 record in the Sooner Athletic Conference.

Head coach Victor Esparza commented, “It was a great team win and I’m really proud of our kids for fighting for 40 minutes. Our defense was really good tonight and we executed on offense. That was a big win for our program. Our girls deserve it; they have been working so hard to get to this point. We still have a some work to do, but we took a good step towards our goal of making the playoffs. We will enjoy this one for a couple of days and get back to work on Wednesday to get ready for the final two road games of the year. “

The Aggie men trailed throughout the first twenty minutes and went into halftime down 42-30. After the break they would fall behind by as much as 16 points, but would bounce back to edge within six at the 10:43 mark. Missed shots and missed free throws took their toll and the Aggies fell back into a double-digit deficit which they were unable to shake. The Pioneers outplayed the Aggies at the boards 47-23 in rebounds.

DK Sumo and Jace Kerr led the team in scoring with a game-high of 21 points for Sumo and 18 for Kerr. Sumo added 15 of his points from shots beyond the arc. Starters Tyler Pate and Jaedon Whitfield totaled 12 and ten points respectively, with Whitfield leading the team in rebounds with seven. Pate held the team-high in assists with four. The Aggie men hold a 11-13 season record and are 4-12 within the conference ranks.

Panhandle State Basketball competes on the road this week with Sooner Athletic Conference games at the University of Science and Arts-Oklahoma on Thursday and Mid-America Christian on Saturday.