EAC defeats Wabash Valley College to advance
Ashlynn Chlarson Named Player of the Game
By Jon Johnson
FORD WYOMING CENTER – The saying goes “defense wins championships” and the Lady Warriors of Wabash Valley can attest as the Eastern Arizona College Lady Gila Monsters used a lock-down defense and the ownership of the paint on offense to defeat No. 2 Wabash Valley 64-59 on Saturday to advance to the NJCAA Final Four.
The Eastern Arizona College Women’s basketball team will next play No. 3 Northwest Florida State on Monday, starting at 5:15 p.m. Arizona time. Northwest Florida State defeated No. 6 Three Rivers 83-78 to advance to the Final Four.
The winner’s final opponent will already be known. In the other semifinal, No. 4 Dodge City will take on No. 8 Shelton State, starting at 3 p.m. Arizona time. The games will be played in the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper, Wyoming.
Wabash Valley College entered the tournament with the top offense, averaging 94.5 points per game. But they faced the top defense in Eastern Arizona.
However, early on, the Lady Warriors stifled the Lady Gila Monsters’ offense while still hitting big shots. Beautiful Waheed, one of the Lady Warriors’ sharpshooters and a St. Johns commit, was deadly from deep and helped Wabash take an early 13-9 lead after one quarter.
Then, early in the second quarter, Waheed got tangled up with Eanae Dagons, and Waheed pulled Dagons down to the floor. Dagons immediately popped back up and took umbrage with the act by getting in Waheed’s face. Waheed then put up her fists in a fighting stance as if she were the Notre Dame Fighting Irish mascot. EAC’s strength and conditioning coach, John Smallwood, got up off the bench and in between the teams while directing Waheed and her teammates to return to their bench. Unfortunately for EAC, Sarah Deng was on the bench then, got up, and went onto the court during the incident, prompting her expulsion from the game – giving her only 7 minutes of game time. A Wabash Valley College player also left her bench and was kicked out of the game. It took the referees roughly 10 minutes to review all the footage and issue their ruling, which included a double-intentional foul and two technical fouls on the coaches, according to the commentator.
With the ejection, Deng will also be unable to compete in the Final Four matchup against Northwest Florida State. However, if EAC advances to the championship, she will be reinstated to play in that game.
With Deng out, EAC moved other players into the rotation, and Danaeja Love Romero Ah Sam hit two big 3-pointers late to push EAC to a 29-27 lead at the half. Love Romero Ah Sam finished with 12 points off the bench on 5-11 shooting.
The Gila Monsters opened the third by feeding Ashlynn Chlarson down low, and she answered in kind. Chlarson scored 10 of her game-high 19 points in the quarter to push the lead to 12 points by the end of the third, 54-42. Wabash Valley had no answer for Chlarson in the quarter, and she owned the paint on offense and defense.
Chlarson finished with 16 rebounds and 3 blocks and was named the Jersey Mike’s Player of the Game.
The Gila Monsters’ defense clamped down on Wabash’s leading scorer, Shamya Reid, who was 1-16 from the field (including 0-4 from 3-point) and had just 4 points to go with 3 turnovers and 3 fouls.
The Lady Warriors weren’t done, however. Whaheed (17 points) and Madison Lewis (13 points) led them back to a two-possession game, but EAC held on to win, 64-59.
The Lady Gila Monsters controlled the paint and outrebounded the Lady Warriors 49-28. EAC shot 33.3 percent from the field, 29.4 percent from 3-point range, and 75 percent from the charity stripe.
Wabash Valley shot only 28.3 percent from the field, 28.6 percent from 3-point range, and 19-33 from the free-throw line to shoot 57.6 percent.
Stephany Goncalves finished with 10 points and 4 rebounds for EAC, and Lucia Auza came off the bench to contribute 8 points and 11 rebounds.
