SEAN BOSTON
Hutch Post
The Sterling College women’s basketball team continued its KCAC tournament run with another upset on the road, as the Warriors, the No. 5 seed, knocked off No. 2 seed Tabor 83-64 on Saturday evening in Hillsboro.
The Warriors will now face No. 5 Friends (19-11) at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the KCAC tournament championship game at the Garvey Center at Friends University in Wichita. The winner receives an automatic bid to the NAIA tournament.
Sterling (20-10) took down No. 3 Evangel in the quarterfinals, 97-63, in Springfield, Missouri, before knocking off the Bluejays on Saturday.
In the semifinal win, Korynn Clason led the Warriors with 27 points and seven rebounds. Kali Briar scored 15, while Alissa Heskamp and McKenna Vogl each added 14.
Of the 10 players who saw action in the semifinal win, eight are from Kansas: Briar (Sterling), Heskamp (Spearville), Alex Bearup (Wichita), Vogl (Pretty Prairie), Trinity Lutters (Hoisington), Evie Gill (St. George), Kayla Morris (Sterling) and Bailey Young (Pretty Prairie).
The Warriors enter Tuesday’s championship game having won seven of their last eight games, with the only loss coming on the road at Evangel, which Sterling avenged five days later in the KCAC quarterfinals.
Sterling split its regular-season meetings with Friends, losing in Wichita on Jan. 8, 78-64, before winning the second game in Sterling, 83-80, on Feb. 13.
The championship game will be streamed on the KCAC Network.