ST. CHARLES, Mo. -- Wichita State's Alex Harden scored on a bank shot from the right side with 6:18 left in the second half to become the Shockers' all-time leading career scorer as she led WSU to a 59-42 win in quarterfinal play at the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Friday afternoon inside The Family Arena.
Harden scored 16 points overall as the game-high scorer while Jamillah Bonner had 14 points and Decker had 12. Loyola was led in scoring by Molly Crosby and Taylor Manuel with eight points each.
Harden opened the second half with a two-pointer from the left side that gave her a tie with Allison Daniel as the all-time leading scorer with 1,638 career points. Harden's 16 game points now gives her 1,641 for her career.
Bonner scored WSU's next five points, including a bucket and free throw at the 16 minute mark, and didn't score again until back-to-back three's by Decker at 10:58 and 9:49 for a 39-24 WSU lead.
A Bonner layup at 8:51 pushed the lead back to 17, 41-24, and the two teams traded baskets, including the history-maker by Harden at 6:18, and free throws during the next six minutes. Back-to-back baskets by Dapprich at 2:34 and 1:59, which included an and-one that pushed the lead to 22 for WSU, its largest of the game, before Head Coach Jody Adams cleared the bench for the final minutes of the game.
A slow offensive start led to a 2-2 tie through the first 4 1/2 minutes with Loyola going 1-for-5 and WSU 1-for-6 to start the game throughout the first media timeout at 15:33.
By the next media timeout at 11:!5, WSU held a 8-5 lead as Harden scored twice and Dapprich added a bucket, while a Farley three-pointer from the left baseline gave Loyola its second bucket of the game.
A Bonner jumper and foul shot gave WSU an 11-5 lead at 10:23, before a Harden steal and layup put WSU up 13-5. WSU got the ball back after Bonner took a charge and Harden hit a three-pointer to give WSU its 12th point in the 12-0 run for a 16-5 lead.
LU got its third bucket of the game to stop the run, before a Decker three made it 19-7 6:05.
Harden picked up her 11th point of the half on a jumper in the lane to give WSU a 23-7 lead at 4:42.
LU scores six-straight points to cut the WSU lead to 23-13, before a Decker pushed the lead back to 13 at 26-13 with 28 seconds remaining before time expired in the half.
In the first half, WSU was led in scoring by Harden's 11 points while Manual had four points to lead the Ramblers.
After a slow start, WSU made 11-of-31 shots for 35.5 percent while Loyola made 6-of-23 for 26 percent.
Wichita State is next in action tomorrow in the 1:37 p.m. semifinal against the winner of today's game between No. 4 seed UNI and No. 5 seed SIU.
