UMKC women reach WAC Tournament semifinals, face top-seeded NM State

The UMKC women’s basketball team is moving on to the semifinals of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament for the second time in school history.

The fourth-seeded Kangaroos (16-14) beat No. 5 seed Utah Valley 78-75 on Wednesday at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. UMKC, appearing in its sixth WAC Tournament, picked up its second win at the event.

“I’m just so proud of our team and the fight that they showed,” UMKC coach Jacie Hoyt said. “People don’t really talk about this, but we have 10 new players who have never played in this tournament. To think of the magnitude of this stage that so many new ones (players) were on, I’m just so proud of the way they stepped up.”

UMKC was led by junior Ericka Mattingly’s 27 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals. Mattingly, who was voted first-team All-WAC and also made the conference’s all-newcomer and all-defensive teams, set UMKC’s single-game WAC Tournament record for points.

Senior Kristen Moore had 11 points and 11 rebounds for her third double-double this season. Leilah Vigil, voted WAC freshman of the year, also had 11 rebounds.

UMKC will face top-seeded New Mexico State (24-6), a 90-54 winner over No. 8 seed Chicago State, at 2 p.m. Friday in the semifinals. A live stream is available on ESPN+. The championship game is 4 p.m. Saturday.

Men in WAC quarters

The UMKC men look to make conference tournament history as it opens play in the quarterfinals Thursday.

The Kangaroos (11-20) haven’t played past the semifinals of a league tournament in program history, since 1995, when they joined a conference. UMKC has been in the WAC for six years and has reached the tournament semifinals three times in the last four years.

The Roos open play as the seventh seed against No. 2 Utah Valley at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The game tips at 8 p.m.

UMKC lost both regular-season meetings to the Wolverines.

Junior guard Xavier Bishop, who surpassed 1,000 career points this season, leads UMKC at 15.3 points per game.

This story was originally published March 13, 2019 at 7:35 PM.