In a game that they had to have in order to climb their way back up into the national ratings, the Flying Queens took care of business on Thursday, defeating Southern Nazarene 79-69.

The win moved the WBU women (15-9) into fourth place in the conference standings with a 10-7 record, one game in back of third place Lubbock Christian and one half game in front of fifth place Oklahoma Christian. SNU (15-10, 9-8) falls to sixth place.

Five players hit double figures for Wayland, led by seniors Jessica Walker with 19 and Shamon Doss with 16. Walker scored the game's first bucket, a three-pointer 30 seconds in, but the SAC's leading scorer, Lana Keith, put in back-to-back baskets to give her team a 4-3 advantage.

The Storm went up by as many as seven (29-22) in the first half, but the Queens came back to tie it at 34 on a shot by Walker with just over three minutes left on the clock.

Wayland grabbed the lead for good with 2:11 left before intermission when Doss put back an offensive rebound to make it 36-34. Walker made it a four-point game at the half, converting another offensive board into two points.

Jacque Farrar closed the gap to one (43-42) with a trey early in the final period, but the Queens went on a 15-3 run to expand the lead to 58-45. A two-pointer by Erika Raymond at the 7:43 mark gave WBU its largest lead of the contest, 62-47.

The Storm made a late surge, led by Keith who had eight points in a two minute stretch, to get to within five with 2:46 remaining, but the Queens made 9-of-10 free throws in the final minute and a half to assure themselves of the victory.

The Wayland women had their best half of shooting all year in the second period, knocking down 12-of-18 from the field (66.7%). They hit just two three-pointers in the game, but were 21-of-24 (87.5%) from the charity stripe.

SNU came into the contest among the NAIA leaders in assist/turnover ratio, but the always-tough WBU defense forced the Storm into 24 turnovers.  The Queens also outrebounded their visitors 37-28.

Doss recorded her fourth double-double of the season with a game-high 12 rebounds. Raymond, who passed out five assists, and Staci Murphree, the Queens' leader in steals with four, each had 12 points, and Alex Williams put in 10 points.

Wayland will attempt to make it three straight with a win on Saturday against USAO (4-19, 2-13). The Drovers fell to Lubbock Christian on Thursday by a score of 86-52.