Trailing 76-75 with less than one second remaining, freshman Sidnee Bopp's buzzer-beating three-pointer from the left corner propelled WKU to a 78-76 overtime win at St. Louis and into the WNIT quarterfinals inside Chaifetz Arena on Friday evening.
Bopp's lone field goal of the game gave the Lady Toppers (27-6) a thrilling victory over the Billikens (26-8) in the first overtime contest of the 2016 WNIT. WKU is also the lone program to advance into the final eight while playing on the road in the round of 16.
With the win, the Lady Toppers advance to face South Dakota on the road on Sunday evening at 7 p.m. (CT) for a spot in the final four of the WNIT. The winner of Sunday's game will square off against either UTEP or Oregon.
Tashia Brown led all scorers with 22 points on the night, and Kendall Noble fell just shy of her third triple-double of the season with 21 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. Ivy Brown tallied a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Jalynn McClain notched a season-high 12 points to extend her career.
Maddison Gits led the Billikens with 15 points off the bench and was joined in double figures by Jackie Kemph (14) and Sadie Stipanovich (12). Kemph, Stipanovich and Denisha Womack each pulled down nine rebounds for St. Louis, and Kemph led the team with seven assists.
WKU came out of the gates hot to begin the game, scoring the first 10 points of the contest over the opening three and a half minutes. Kayla Smith and Noble knocked down three-pointers to key the run, while Tashia Brown added four more points to close out the early burst.
Over the next four minutes, the Billikens battled back to cut WKU's lead to just two points, 15-13, on the strength of a 13-5 run. Gits (seven points) and Jordyn Frantz (six points) contributed all of the points for St. Louis, and Frantz capped the run with two shots from beyond the arc just over one minute apart.
The Lady Toppers maintained their lead until the very end of the first quarter, when Jamesia Price connected on a three-pointer from the left corner for the Billikens to tie the game at 18-18.
St. Louis took its first lead of the night with eight unanswered points midway through the second quarter from four different scorers. Kemph punctuated the run with a layup at the 5:13 mark to give the Billikens a 28-22 lead over WKU.
WKU cut the deficit to just three points after a three-point play from Tashia Brown, but St. Louis maintained its advantage through the halftime break, carrying a 38-30 lead into the locker room.
St. Louis' Jenny Vliet pushed the Billikens' advantage to 11 with a three-pointer to open the third quarter, but the Lady Toppers gradually chipped away at the deficit, cutting the lead to just five points, 43-38, with 6:46 on the clock. McClain knocked down a pair of jumpers to key the run for WKU and pull the Lady Toppers with two possessions.
The Billikens rebuilt an eight-point lead, but WKU fired back with eight unanswered points to erase the St. Louis advantage. Four different Lady Toppers scored during the stretch, and McClain's layup with 1:29 remaining knotted the game at 48-48.
Early in the fourth quarter, St. Louis' lead grew to as many as six points, 56-50, but the Lady Toppers again whittled away at the deficit and finally retook the lead, 63-62, on Ivy Brown's jumper with 3:23 to play. The final three minutes of the game featured three ties, and the Billikens' Stipanovich knocked down two free throws with just two seconds remaining to tie the game at 69-69 and force overtime.
In the extra frame, Noble's initial jumper kept the Lady Toppers in front for nearly three minutes before Kemph's layup gave the Billikens a 72-71 advantage with 1:48 to play. The lead changed hands five times over the final two minutes as the two sides exchanged baskets, but St. Louis' Olivia Jakubicek gave the Billikens a 76-75 lead with less than one second remaining on a jumper just inside the arc.
Needing a basket to win, Noble found Bopp open in the left corner on the in-bounds play and the freshman knocked down the three-pointer at the buzzer to seal the victory.