Coach Abby Stutts’ debut season was an outstanding one, staying in the top-10 for a majority of the season, hosting and winning the first and second rounds of the tournament, and an appearance in the quarterfinals. The No. 2 seed Freed-Hardeman Univeristy Lady Lions fell short of a Fab Four appearance by falling to the No. 1 seed Indiana Wesleyan University Wildcats 77-46. Kelsey Bender bucketed the first points for the Lady Lions (28-5) with a 3-pointer before the Wildcats scored four of their game’s 19 free throws. Brooklyn Crouch would join in with a triple of her own before Rachel Satterly drove into the lane for a layup. Carissa Curtis’s 3-pointer tied the game late in the quarter, but late buckets from IWU ended the quarter with FHU trailing 17-13. The second quarter was a 3-point contest for the Wildcats (32-2) who scored all of their points in the frame from beyond the arc. Crouch and Alaina Stiles scored from long range for the Lady Lions while Jenna Satterly and Elli Chumley drove into the lane to end the first half down 29-25. J. Satterly’s 3-pointer was followed by a layup from Crouch to give FHU the lead 30-29, but the Wildcats quickly reclaimed a lead and made several runs including a 7-0 run to start the quarter and an 8-0 run to end the quarter. Bender’s layup with 25 seconds remaining in the third broke the dry spell but the Lady Lions still trailed 52-49. The Wildcats’ fourth quarter featured two types of scores: 3-pointers (five) and free throws (10) to outlast the Lady Lions. Bender managed two baskets in the quarter, but in the fourth quarter the Lady Lions were out-scored 25-7 to end the FHU season with a 77-46 loss. The Lady Lions were 3-6 from the charity stripe while Indiana Wesleyan was 19-24. FHU out-shot their opponents from the floor, shooting 41% to IWU’s 37. The Wildcats were 14-34 from long range while the Lady Lions ended 7-16 from three.
