By: Sam Knehans, Communications & Sports Information Intern

FRANKFORT, Ky. – (Box Score) No. 3 Wiley (Texas) bested No. 1 Westminster (Utah), 75-58, in the third quarterfinal game at the Frankfort Convention Center Saturday to advance to its first-ever NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball National Championship Fab Four.

The Lady Wildcats had beaten No. 6 Mobile (Ala.) and No. 7 Shawnee State (Ohio), while Westminster had defeated No. 8 William Woods (Mo.) and No. 4 MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.), to advance to the quarterfinals.

Wiley never trailed after taking a 6-5 lead on a field goal by junior center Alexia Kelley with 15:28 remaining in the first half. The Lady Wildcats headed to the locker room at halftime with a 19-point lead and kept it at double-digits throughout the second period, despite the Griffins shooting 50.0 percent (3-of-6) from 3-point range and 57.1 percent (12-of-21) from the field in the second half.

Senior guards Danisha Shaw and Kyniddia Purdy led Wiley with 23 and 19 points, respectively. Shaw’s 23 points was also the game-high. “Danisha Shaw and Kyniddia Purdy are our seniors on our team and they led us. They remember the hurt we felt last year from [our national championship first round loss to] Campbellsville and wanted to come back and prove why Wiley was in the tournament,” said Red River Athletic Conference Coach of the Year Courtney Garrett-Pruitt.

Senior forwards Kelsi Wells and Alli Blake, the Frontier Conference Player of the Year, paced Westminster with 19 and 18 points, respectively.

Westminster shot well throughout the contest, 45.7 percent (21-of-46) from the field and 40.0 percent (6-of-15) from beyond the arc, but was outdone by Wiley’s hot shooting, 60.0 percent (33-of-55) from the field and 50.0 percent (4-of-8) from 3-point range.

Wiley’s stifling defense forced 21 turnovers, a tournament-high for Westminster and just two off its season-high of 23, set on Dec. 28 in a regular-season game against The Master’s (Calif.).

“We had a game plan coming in, which was to turn our defense into offense, and it proved to be effective. We just wanted to keep building on that lead and not let up. Westminster is such a good team. They have the ability to get back into the game, and we tried our best to stick to,” said Garrett-Pruitt.

Wiley (30-4) advances to the first Fab Four in program history, and will be the first historically black college to appear in the NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball National Championship semifinals since former member Central State (Ohio) in 2002. The Lady Wildcats will face the last remaining No. 1 seed, Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) on Monday at 8:00 p.m. EDT.

Coach Garrett-Pruitt said this of the Lady Wildcats' semifinal matchup, “It’s going to be a tough game. Freed-Hardeman is a great team and a historic program with great coaches. I know we're going to have our work cut out for us, but it's going to be a great game.”

Westminster falls in the national championship quarterfinals for the second-straight year and ends its season with a record of 26-3.