The Union University Lady Bulldogs advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division II Tournament after defeating the Embry-Riddle Eagles 74-59 on Saturday night at Fred DeLay Gymnasium. They improved to 30-3 overall, their most wins since joining NCAA D-2 in 2012-2013. Embry-Riddle would finish the season 24-8.
Though they began to struggle offensively in the second quarter, Union’s stout defense allowed them to have a 37-26 lead at the half. The Lady Bulldogs would extend their lead to as much as 15 in the second half, but several runs by Embry-Riddle allowed them to stay in the game. The Eagles would cut the lead to eight, but a step back three from freshman guard Emily Beard with less than five minutes remaining would allow Union to never look back.
“[Jada Perkins] and Chelsey [Shumpert] have done a great job of handling the ball all year,” Union head coach Mark Campbell said. “We were patient on offense for most of the night. Embry-Riddle is well coached and it was a tough matchup all night long.”
As per usual, senior guard Chelsey Shumpert led the team in scoring, finishing with 23 points. Though she didn’t score any points, junior guard Jada Perkins played the role of game manager, finishing with eight assists and nine rebounds. Senior center Kyvin Goodin-Rogers scored eight points and had several excellent defensive plays, including a memorable chasedown block in the fourth quarter.
“I sure didn’t know that I was going to be able to block her,” said Goodin-Rogers. “Once I reached half-court, I was like ‘what are you doing?'”
The Lady Bulldogs defeated Embry-Riddle after beating an outmatched Clark Atlanta team 90-54 in the first round of the tournament. Junior guard Tiffany Rechis was the star of the show as she had 20 points on 6-8 shooting from three and 10 rebounds. Chelsey Shumpert also added 20 points in the effort.
Union will play Valdosta State in the Sweet 16 on Monday at 7 p.m. in Fred DeLay Gymnasium.
