By Alan Wiederhold
HT Athletic Communications
PLAINVIEW, Texas – The NAIA and all three classifications of the NCAA have at least one site and university that is of utmost importance in the history of women's college basketball, and Huston-Tillotson University's women's team made a pilgrimage to one of those sites Tuesday.
The Rams made their first visit to Wayland Baptist University in more than a decade Tuesday, where the host Flying Queens claimed a 68-52 win over HT in a non-conference game.
Senior forward Wilashia Burleson scored 16 points and secured 14 rebounds to lead the Rams (3-8) against Wayland; she also recorded four assists and four steals. In the game on HT's 2025-26 schedule closest to her hometown of Midland, Texas, Destiny Stanford scored 13 points for the Rams.
Brooklyn Birkenfeld scored 16 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to lead three Wayland Baptist (5-7) players in double-figures Tuesday.
The Flying Queens seized control of the game with 16 unanswered points over a span of more than five minutes in the first quarter, turning a 6-4 deficit into a 20-6 lead with with 1:48 remaining in the opening period. Wayland would not trail again for the remainder of the contest.
UP NEXT:
The Rams travel to Laredo, Texas, for a game at NCAA Division II program Texas A&M International. The Dustdevils are 2-6 this season, with all eight of those games against other NCAA Division II programs; the Dustdevils also won an exhibition game at St. Thomas (Texas) by a score of 95-85 to start the season. The 235 miles between HT and TAMIU means there's a possibility that the Rams and any visiting fans who travel there will spend slightly more time on IH-35 on this trip than their fans spend on it getting to a Thursday conference doubleheader at Branch Gymnasium. A slight possibility, anyway.
The NOTES:
• Burleson turned in her seventh double-double performance for the Rams in the team's 11th game of the season. The 16-point, 14-rebound showing at Wayland Baptist was also her first double-double in a road game since Nov. 20, when she scored 18 points and pulled in 23 rebounds.
• Freshman guard Kaylani Nichols scored eight points for the Rams, a collegiate high in her young career.
• Despite playing on the road at one at the most prominent women's basketball program in the NAIA, the Rams were treated fairly well in one important aspect – they shot 23 free throws (making 17, or 73.9 percent of their attempts), while the Flying Queens only shot 14 free throw attempts, making 11 (78.6 percent)
• The Rams were hindered by a 1-for-11 showing (9.1 percent) at the 3-point arc, while Wayland Baptist wasn't much better …
• … as the Flying Queens shot 21.9 percent (7 of 32, yes, 32 attempts) from 3-point range. The seven 3-pointers made were the third most by an HT opponent this season, but the 21.9 percentage was the third worst percentage this season by a Rams opponent.
• Wayland Baptist remained undefeated in the all-time series with HT, but Tuesday's result was the narrowest for HT in Plainview over the last 20 years. The previous meeting between the two teams saw the Flying Queens take a 94-67 win in Plainview on Nov. 2, 2013. Three years before that, Wayland claimed a 96-48 win at home over the Rams.
• Though more than 150 miles separate Midland, Texas, and Plainview, the Tuesday's contest was the nearest game to Stanford's hometown the Rams will play this season. Stanford is also the HT player whose hometown is closest to Plainview.
• Tuesday's contest was the only regular-season game on HT's schedule that was or will be played west of Interstate Highway 35. Their exhibition game at Texas State on Dec. 29 will also be west of IH-35 by roughly a mile, but even that wouldn't be in the true spirit of that useless but fun statistic for people who enjoy maps. HT's next game at Texas A&M International on Thursday, Dec. 18, will also be east of the IH-35, as the campus is just east of the highway in Laredo, Texas.
• Wayland Baptist's recorded history of women's basketball predates Title IX legislation by more than a quarter-century. From 1948 through 1977, the Flying Queens participated in Amateur Athletic Union competition, one of the few college programs to do so against industrial and company (essentially professional) teams. WBU has won more games than any other women's college basketball program, including Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana Tech, Connecticut, Delta State (Miss.) (currently at the NCAA Division II level), and Immaculata (Penn.), currently an NCAA Division III program. Many of these programs were among the early powerhouse teams in the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, which governed women's college sports in the first decade after Title IX came into being.
– HT –
