In their first Great Midwest Athletic Conference championship appearance in four years, the No. 2 seed Kentucky Wesleyan College women’s basketball team fell 84-68 to the No. 1 seed Walsh University on Saturday.
The Panthers now wait until Sunday to find out if they earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament. Wesleyan entered the week ranked No. 7 in the Midwest Region. The selection show is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. and will air on ncaa.com.
A back-and-forth contest saw the lead change 15 times with neither team leading by more than 5 points the entire first half. The Panthers (24-7) trailed 44-42 at the break despite shooting 53.8 percent from beyond the arc.
Wesleyan went on an 8-0 run thanks to a 3-pointer from Keelie Lamb and five points from Kaylee Clifford, putting the Panthers ahead by 4 points less than two minutes into the second half. The Cavs responded with strong push of their own to take a small lead.
Wesleyan faced a 64-59 deficit entering the final quarter but were unable to make a shot from long range down the stretch, and the Panthers were outscored 20-9 in the final 10 minutes.
Clifford capped off a stellar championship tournament performance with 19 points and 4 rebounds. The sophomore averaged 18.3 points on the week with 5.0 rebounds per game.
Jenna Martin finished with 16 points and Lamb scored 13. Lily Grimes paved the way with 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.
