MOUNT VERNON —The Mount Vernon Nazarene University women’s basketball team won its first NAIA tournament game March 12 and Maggie Coe was a big reason why.
The sophomore from Cedarville scored 16 points on six-of-13 shooting and also had five assists and five rebounds to help the Lady Cougars beat LSU-Shreveport, 73-58.
The next night, Coe led all scorers with 23 points and made six three-pointers as Mount Vernon beat Wayland Baptist, the No.1 seed in the Alexandria A Bracket, 77-74. Wayland, the No. 4 overall seed, had a 40-game winning streak going into that game.
The Lady Cougars advanced to the Sweet 16 in Sioux City, Iowa against Thomas More at 1 p.m. today. This is just the second time the MVNU women’s team has made the national tournament.
Coe’s contribution should come as no surprise. She was Ohio Heritage Conference player of the year as a senior and as a freshman at MVNU last year, she started 31 games and averaged 13.3 points while shooting 84.3 percent from the free throw line. In 15 games this season, Coe has averaged 11.1 points, 2.5 assists and one steal per game.
Her top three scoring games have come in MVNU’s last three games.