Despite a huge third quarter where National Park College's women's basketball team outscored visiting Rhema Bible Training College, 33-20, the Nighthawks could not maintain the lead and the Lady Eagles took an 83-78 win Monday night at The Kettle in the NPC Wellness Center.
Rhema handed National Park College (3-9) its fourth straight loss and avenged a 79-56 loss to the Nighthawks on Jan. 10 in Broken Arrow, Okla.
"We met them last time, and we beat them pretty easy," said National Park College head coach Marvin Moody. "I think we took them for granted coming out.
"We didn't shoot very well at first, kind of got down on ourselves. Their one girl (Brianna Wood) who hit all those threes, she hit one last time. By the time we got on her, it was a little too late."
The Nighthawks trailed the Lady Eagles, 40-30, at the half, but they opened the third frame on a 12-3 run to pull within 43-42 with 4:04 off the clock. A 7-3 stretch by Rhema gave the Lady Eagles a 50-45 lead with 4:35 to go in the quarter.
National Park College knotted the score at 51 near the 3:00 mark before taking a 54-51 lead with 2:21 left in the period on a trey by sophomore guard Laney Wallace, a Malvern grad, off a pass from freshman guard Makayla-Kai Montiho, of Poyen.
Sophomore guard Bailey Womack, of Fountain Lake, made a tight pass between a pair of Lady Eagle defenders for a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Hailee Crosby, of Mountain Pine, from the corner to push the Nighthawks out to a 60-55 lead with 56 seconds to go until the fourth quarter.
Junior forward Tiffany Wuertzer hit a long jumper for Rhema to pull within three points with 16 seconds left, but Womack hit a 3-pointer with seven seconds remaining to take a 63-57 lead with 10 minutes left to play.
It took 2:10 of the final period for either team to score, but Lake Hamilton grad Logan Keener, a freshman, was fouled as she made a shot, earning an and-one for a 66-57 lead. After a pair of free throws by Montiho pushed the Nighthawks' lead out to 68-61 with 4:26 remaining, Rhema managed to tie the game up at 69-69.
"We went out to more of a 2-3, and we spread out and started trapping," Moody said of his plan in the second half. "We put in some smaller girls, and basically what their coach did, she figured out what we were doing and started going low on us.
"We switched back to the big girls, which took away our speed to attack in the corners. She made a great adjustment."
A trey by Womack gave National Park College a 72-69 lead with 4:02 to go before freshman guard Briana Wood went on a 3-point shooting spree, hitting three of her four in the period in under 1:30 to push Rhema out to an 80-74 lead with 1:28 remaining. The Nighthawks pulled within 80-76 with 13.3 seconds to go thanks to a pair of free throws by Womack, but the Lady Eagles made three more at the line while allowing two more from Womack to set the final.
"Our girls, they came out ready," said Rhema head coach Kerri Sharp. "We hit some big shots. Those girls, they're good shooters. We had the lead at the half and lost some shooters, lost the 3-point shooters.
"Man, they finished strong, and I had a couple girls that really shot good tonight. No. 24 (Wuertzer) and 23 (Wood), they came out hitting tonight and really showed up for us. It was a big game, big win for us."
Crosby put the Nighthawks on the board first with a trey from the corner just 16 seconds into the game before driving in for a short jumper to make it 5-2 with 1:45 ticked away. Rhema pulled to a 6-5 lead before the two teams battled back and forth with the Lady Eagles ending with a 19-17 lead after 10 minutes.
The second period saw the Lady Eagles outscore the home team, 21-13, to take a 40-30 lead into the break.
Wood dominated the game for the Lady Eagles, putting up 27 points, all from 3-point range, on 9 of 17 shooting.
"I expect that from her," Sharp said. "It's been a year of getting in shape.
"This is probably one of her biggest games. She's a shooter, and you can expect that she's going to be a shooter every game, but tonight she really showed up for us and was clutch."
Freshman forward Mikal Lewis added 20 points with 13 rebounds and an assist, and Wuertzer had 18 points with six rebounds.
Womack led the Nighthawks with 23 points, including three treys, with four steals, four assists and two rebounds. Crosby added 18 points with seven rebounds and three steals, Wallace had 13 with two rebounds and two assists, and Keener had 11 points with three rebounds and a steal.
"Usually between her, Faith and Hailee, any one of them is going to take the lead in the 20-, 18-, 17-point range," said Moody.
"We need that out of all three of them every night. Bailey's played well. She's had an injury. The last three games, she's been moving pretty good. She's playing well for me."
The Nighthawks are off until Feb. 2 when they host North Arkansas (15-4) at noon.
National Park College was scheduled to host Arkansas State University Mid-South on Thursday and travel to West Memphis to face the Lady Greyhounds on Feb. 14. Mid-South canceled the rest of its season last month due to a lack of eligible players.
Sports on 01/23/2019