The Aquinas women's basketball team used a strong start to the third quarter and defended extremely well, toppling Concordia in the opening round of the WHAC Tournament on Thursday (Feb. 27) at the Sturrus Center. AQ turned its seven-point halftime advantage into a 63-44 quarterfinal victory to advance to Saturday's (Feb. 29) conference semifinals in Fort Wayne.

Aquinas entered Thursday as the fourth seed in the conference tournament, while Concordia was the fifth seed. The teams were technically tied in the regular season standings, but AQ won a tiebreaker which allowed the Saints to host Thursday's matchup. That became a decided advantage, as Aquinas improves to 9-5 at home this season and captured its second home victory of the year against Concordia.

With the win, AQ is 17-13 overall and advances to Saturday's semifinal game against #10 Indiana Tech on the Warriors' home floor. The teams played last Saturday (Feb. 22) in Fort Wayne, with Indiana Tech winning 67-49. Game time is set for 1:00 p.m.

Concordia's season ends with an 18-12 overall record.

Thursday's win was not the prettiest victory. There were 45 combined fouls, 49 turnovers between the teams, and Aquinas struggled at the free throw line to the tune of a 16-of-32 figure.

That being said, the Saints held Concordia to 31.6 shooting from the field and a 4-for-20 mark from three-point range. Only 15 of those 45 fouls were called on Aquinas, as Concordia went just 4-for-6 at the line. AQ also held a 43-36 rebounding advantage and forced CUAA into 26 turnovers.

The Saints also won all four quarters, including an 18-9 scoring advantage in the third quarter that turned the game into AQ's favor. Four Saints reached double-digits, led by a game-high 13 points from both Marissa Brady and Jaylynn Williams. Brady was 5-for-7 from the field and added seven rebounds and two blocks, while Williams made 5-of-10 shots and tallied two assists.

JaKarri Alven scored 12 points and made 5-of-6 free throws, while picking up two steals. Camaryia Williams – who earlier in the day was named the WHAC Defensive Player of the Year – continued her terrific season with a game-high 16 rebounds, 11 points, and three assists. It was her fifth double-double of the season.

Daz'Sha Day totaled six points, four rebounds, and two steals, while Ally Frederickson blocked a pair of shots.

Concordia started the game strong, jumping out to a 6-0 lead in the opening three minutes, but Aquinas closed the rest of the quarter with a 13-2 run. In the final 1:10, Brighton Miller delivered assists to both Jaylynn Williams and Alven on made three-pointers, helping close the run and the quarter with a 13-8 Saints lead.

AQ led the entire second quarter – briefly by 10 points in the middle of the stanza – and took a 27-20 edge to halftime. Coming out of the locker room, Aquinas ran off eight points in just 56 seconds – doing so on a Day three-point play, a Camaryia Williams layup, and a three-pointer from Keeley Hinton to make it a 35-20 score.

Concordia would not get closer than 13 points the rest of the game.

Aquinas shot 44.0 percent from the field and held a slight 34-28 edge in points in the paint.

Despite falling less than a week ago to Indiana Tech, AQ gave the Warriors one of their tougher games of the season on Jan. 8 in the Sturrus Center. Indiana Tech (now 27-4) escaped with a 61-58 overtime victory in a game that was every bit as close as the score shows.

The other semifinal game is third-seeded Lawrence Tech at second-seed Siena Heights at 1:00 p.m. The winners will play on Tuesday (Mar. 3) at 7:30 p.m. at the highest remaining seed.