The Emporia Gazette

May 28, 2012

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CANYON, TEXAS — Just as its been all year, when Emporia State needed a basket late on Saturday night, star guard Cassondra Boston delivered.

Boston drained a step-back 3-pointer with 1:29 left that put the Lady Hornets ahead by six, and she made four free throws in the final minute to give her team a 76-69 win over top seed West Texas A&M.

The 15th-ranked Lady Hornets are headed to the South Central Regional championship game for the first time since 2008, where they will face Northeastern State, which beat Washburn 56-51.

Emporia State is headed there because of its senior guards and another strong performance by junior center Alli Volkens.

Boston scored a team-high 21 points and made all 13 of her free throws. Fellow senior guard Sophia Lenard scored 13 points off the bench. Senior guard Jamie Augustyn scored 10 points and hit back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the second half that pushed a six-point lead to 12. Lenard and Augustyn both made a pair of free throws in the final minute as well.

The Lady Hornets (26-5) benefited from getting to the line, where they made 30 of 36, compared to 9 of 17 for WT.

Alli Volkens had a big first half, scoring 13 of her 19 points, which followed a 21-point game from Volkens in the first round.

West Texas A&M (30-4) was led by Jamie Simmons, who scored 30 points, and nearly led a comeback in the final minutes by herself. Simmons scored 16 of WT’s final 22 points, but the closest Simmons could get her team was within three at 65-62, and Boston had the timely answer.

The championship game is on Monday at 7 p.m. For complete coverage of Saturday’s game, check Monday’s Gazette.

Half

CANYON, TEXAS — Emporia State has been able to get to the free throw line and that’s been the difference as ESU leads West Texas A&M 35-27 at halftime of the South Central Regional semifinals.

Alli Volkens has continued her strong play at the Regional and has a game-high 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Cassondra Boston has 10 points and has made all five of her free throws. As a team, ESU is 12 of 14 from the line, compared to only 3 of 5 for WT.

Jamie Simmons leads WT with 10 points.

The only problem for the Lady Hornets thus far has been taking care of the ball. They have 11 turnovers, but they’ve made up for the loss possessions by winning the rebounding battle 19-14.