(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 an "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.