ORANGE, Calif. – A pair of free throws by junior G Shasidy Ludgood with 2.8 seconds remaining gave the Louisiana College Wildcats a 61-60 win over the Chapman University women's basketball team in the first round of the NCAA Division III Championships Friday night at the Hutton Center. Louisiana College (25-3) captured its first-ever playoff win and advances to face George Fox University (23-5) on Saturday night in second round action.

Prior to knocking down the game-winning free throws, Ludgood had been 2-for-6 from the line. Chapman (22-6) looked as if it was going to pull out the win when junior C Brandi Hood put the Panthers ahead 60-59 with a layup off an assist from senior G Christina Ly with 5.5 seconds remaining. On the ensuing possession a foul was called against Chapman as they attempted to full court press which put Ludgood at the line.

Chapman led by single-digits for the majority of the second half until junior G Roslyn Wilmer connected on a three-point play followed by baseline jumper to give Louisiana College a 53-51 lead with 5:06 remaining. Senior G Kayla Guidry added a bucket to give the Wildcats a 55-51 lead with 3:50 for two of her 12 points. The four-point lead was the largest of the half for them. Wilmer had 10 of her game-high 19 points in the second half and nine of those points came in the final 6 minutes.

The game saw five ties, 10 lead changes and the largest lead for either team was seven points when Chapman led 30-23 with 5:42 remaining in the first half on a layup by Hood. Louisiana College led for the first five minutes of the game highlighted by Ludgood who had five of her nine points during the stretch including the games first points so she had the first and last points of the night for the Wildcats. A layup by Hood at the 14:38 mark of the first half gave the Panthers their first lead of the game.

Hood had a team-high 16 points and 14 rebounds while freshman Kimi Takaoka had nine points and sophomore G Emily McCoy added eight points on 2-for-4 three point shooting.

by Chris Watts
Sports Information Assistant

Boxscore: http://chapman.prestosports.com/sports/wbkb/2010-11/boxscores/20110304_kv8k.xml